Part 7

Salt from the Kenawha works was sent up the highest boatable waters of the Allegheny to regions formerly supplied from the Salines of New York.[469] Flint describes the boats stopping at New Madrid on the Mississippi, as follows. "You can name no point from the numerous rivers of the Ohio and Mississippi from which some of these boats have not come. In one place there are boats loaded with planks, from the pine forests of the Southwest of New York. In another quarter there are the Yankee nations of Ohio. From Kentucky, pork, flour, whiskey, hemp, tobacco, bagging, and bale rope. From Tennessee there are the same articles, together with great quantities of cotton. From Missouri and Illinois, cattle and horses, the same articles generally as from Ohio, together with peltry and lead from Missouri. Some boats are loaded with corn in the ear and in bulk; others with barrels of apples and potatoes. Some have loads of cider, and what they call "cider royal," or cider that has been strengthened by boiling or freezing. There are dried fruits, every kind of spirits manufactured in these regions, and in short, the products of the ingenuity and agriculture of the whole upper country of the West. The fleet unites once more at Natchez or New Orleans."[470]

The "Fame" from Pittsburg, arrived in Cincinnati, in 1827 with a cargo, part of which consisted of 102 pieces of cannon, and and about 80 tons of grape shot, for the United States Navy. Her deck was entirely filled with empty hogsheads and casks, belonging to a house in Pittsburg, sent to New Orleans to be filled with a return cargo of Molasses, as it was found to be much cheaper to have the casks made at Pittsburg and pay their freight to New Orleans, than to purchase them at the latter place.[471] In 1828, 5504 bales of Kentucky cotton bagging, 15,526 coils of bale rope, and 4,918,494 lbs. of lard, were received in New Orleans, as against 2,308 bales, 1 0,459 coils, and 2,426,299 lbs. of the preceding year.[472]

New Orleans had drawn away considerable of the trade of the western country with Philadelphia and Baltimore. Basil Hall says, "There are projects afloat, however, for restoring this lost balance to Philadelphia and Baltimore, and of regaining some portion of the profits derived from supplying the western country with goods, and of drawing off its produce.... If the mouth of the Mississippi could be damned up, or the harbor of New York demolished, there might be some chance for the resuscitation of the intermediate seaports."[473] Grain, salted meats, spirits, tobacco, hemp, skins, and the fruits of the regions bordering on the Missouri, Ohio, and Mississippi were sent to New Orleans;[474] return cargoes of manufactured goods from foreign countries, together with fish, salt, sugar, steel, iron, and other articles were sent back by steamboat.[475] Slaves were sent from Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky to the southern states bordering on the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Basil Hall says, "During certain seasons of the year, I am informed, all the roads, steamboats, and packets are crowded with negroes on their way to the great slave markets of the South."[476]

During the year 1828, 4100 hogsheads of sugar, and 3500 barrels or bags of coffee were received at Louisville, worth together about $600,000. In 1825-1826, 2050 hogsheads of tobacco were deposited at Louisville; 4354 in 1826-1827; and 4075 in 1827-1828. Freight was so reduced by competition, that sugar, coffee, tea, and groceries in general, had only a small advance over their prices in New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Good sugar of the new crop sold in Louisville at 7¼ to 7½ cents per pound, by the single barrel.[477]

The 'Register' quotes from the 'Commercial Daily Advertiser' 1830, as follows: "The manufacture of chair and cabinet wares at Cincinnati, for articles _sent out_ of the city, had a value last year, in the great sum of $150,000. The chief part of this value was in the _labor_ bestowed by inhabitants of the city. There was a _creation_ of not less than $125,000.... The canal is also doing great things for this city.[478] We see by the 'Gazette' that in the first ten days of March, there arrived 8,105 barrels of flour, 2116 of whiskey, 2,823 of pork, and 4,167 of lard, bulk pork and bacon, 100 tons, with a great variety and quantity of other articles such as corn, corn meal, butter, eggs, etc. This canal extends only 60 miles into the interior. The total received in these ten days, amounted to $2,028.22."[479]

Kentucky exported all the grains, pulses, fruits, wheat, and corn. Hemp and tobacco were the staples of the State. In addition to these articles Kentucky exported immense quantities of flour, lard, butter, cheese, pork, beef, Indian corn and meal, whiskey, cider, cider royal, fruit, fresh and dried, horses, and manufactures. Exports were chiefly to New Orleans, but a considerable amount ascended the Ohio to Pittsburg. The growers of this State often shipped from New Orleans, on their own account, to the Atlantic States, Vera Cruz, or the West Indies.[480] The exports for the greater part of the state, amounted in 1829, to $2,780,000.[481]

In western Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, and a part of Tennessee, flour, corn, small grains, pulse potatoes, and other vegetables; fruit, as apples, fresh and dried, dried peaches, and other preserved fruits, beef, pork, cheese butter, poultry, venison hams, live cattle, hogs, and horses were exported. The greater part of the flour was sent from Ohio and Kentucky; wheat was grown with more ease in Illinois and Missouri, and Ohio engaged in the culture of yellow tobacco.[482] Large quantities of flour were shipped from Wellsburg, West Virginia to New Orleans.[483] Cotton, and the Castor bean, and the oil made from it were exported from Illinois for several years prior to 1830.[484]

There were often as many as five or six thousand boatmen in New Orleans from the 'upper country' at this period.[485] The canals, the rapid influx of immigration, and the levelling tendency of the increased facilities of transport, caused western products to rapidly approximate the Atlantic value. Flint says, "The natural result of this order of things will be, that the west will soon export four times its former amount of flour and other produce."[486]

I have endeavored in this chapter to show how rapidly the resources, and the commerce of the country were developed, bringing great prosperity to the West.

FOOTNOTES:

[371] Louisiana Gasette, VII., 815. January 23, 1811.

Ibid., April 6, 1811.

[372] Ibid., April 6, 1811.

[373] Ibid.

Ibid,. July 26, 1811.

[374] Ibid., April 6, 1811.

[375] Ibid.

[376] Ibid., July 26, 1811.

[377] Ibid.

Ibid., July 13, 1811.

[378] Ibid., July 26, 1811.

[379] Ibid.

[380] Louisiana Moniteur, June 27, 1811.

[381] Niles, Weekly Register, I., 10/

[382] Louisiana Moniteur, April 2, 1812.

[383] Ibid.

Louisiana Gasette, May 27, 1812.

[384] Louisiana Gasette, May 27, 1812.

[385] Ibid.

[386] Ibid.

[387] Ibid.

[388] Ibid.

[389] Ibid., July 7, 1812.

[390] Louisiana Courier, July 31, 1812.

[391] Ibid.

[392] Louisiana Gasette, November 17, 1812.

[393] Niles, Weekly Register, III., 346.

[394] Ibid., VI., 209.

[395] Ibid., VI., 249.

[396] Ibid., VI., 360.

[397] Louisiana Gasette, August 11, 1814. p. 3. col. 1.

[398] Louisiana Gasette, April 12, 1812.

[399] Niles, Weekly Register, VI., 360.

[400] Louisiana Gasette, August 11, 1814. p. 3. col. 1.

[401] Niles, Weekly Register, VI., 320.

[402] Ibid., 207.

[403] Ibid.

[404] Ibid. VIII., 119-120.

[405] Ibid., 152.

[406] Ibid., X., 372.

[407] Ibid., IX., 420.

[408] Ibid., 420.

[409] Niles, Weekly Register, VIII., 320. For estimate of produce received annually at New Orleans this period, see, Ibid, X., 348.

[410] Brown, S. R., Western Gazetteer, 149-150.

Niles, Weekly Register, XII., 70. March 29, 1817. "The schedule of what is called Lower Louisiana, consisting of cotton, corn, indigo, molasses, masts and spars, planks, gunpowder, rice, sugar, shingles, soap, taffia, tallow, timber, beeswax, etc...." of the above produce is independent of

[411] Brown, S. R., Western Gazetteer, 280.

[412] Niles, Weekly Register, XII., 70.

[413] Brown S. R., Western Gazetteer, 280.

Fearon, H. B., Journey, 232. "The imports of Cincinnati at this time consisted of nearly every description of English goods, and some French and India; these were received by way of New Orleans, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, chiefly the two latter cities. Some of their goods they imported direct from England, but more commonly they purchased them at Philadelphia...."

[414] Fearon, H. B., Journey, 231.

[415] Ibid.

[416] Brown, S. R., Western Gazetteer, 280.

Niles, Weekly Register, XII., 70.} Also contain references to Fearon, H. B., Journey, 232. } the trade of Cincinnati. Fordham, E. Q., Travels, 192. }

[417] Brown, S. R., Western Gazetteer, 280.

[418] Ibid.

[419] Ibid., 73.

[420] Fearon, H. B., Journey, 236.

[421] Ibid., 237-238.

[422] Ibid., 221-222.

[423] Fordham, E. P., Travels, 132.

Fearon, H. B., Journey, 260.

[424] Ibid., 199.

[425] Fearon, H. B., Journey, 260.

[426] Fordham, E. P., Travels, 117-118.

[427] Ibid., 122.

[428] Birkbeck, M., Letters, 107-108.

[429] Ibid., Notes, 133.

[430] Ibid., Letters, 55-56.

[431] Fearon, H. B., Journey, 207.

[432] Reynolds, J., My Own Times, 176.

[433] Niles, Weekly Register, XIII., 377.

[434] Birkbeck, M., Letters, 74.

[435] Ibid., Notes, 89-90.

[436] Faux, W., Memorable Days, Early W. Travels, XI., 147.

[437] Ibid., XI., 143-144.

[438] James, E., Account, Early W. Travels, XIV., 56.

[439] Faux, W., Memorable Days, Early W. Travels, XI., 143-144.

[440] Ibid., XII., 18.

[441] Ibid.

[442] Flint, J., Letters, Early W. Travels, IX., 156.

[443] Ibid., 149-151.

[444] Welby, A., Visit, Early W. Travels, XII., 236.

[445] Welby, A., Visit, Early W. Travels, XII., 236.

[446] Ibid., XII., 257.

[447] Ibid., 238.

[448] Ibid.

[449] Faux, W., Memorable Days, Early W. Travels, XI., 301.

[450] Niles, Weekly Register, XVII., 376.

[451] Niles, Weekly Register, XX., 239.

[452] Tranchepain, Travels, 100.

Ogden, G. W., Letters, Early W. Travels, XIX., 41.

[453] Tranchepain, Travels, 99.

Ogden, G. W., Letters, Early W. Travels, XIX., 41.

[454] Niles, Weekly Register, XXI., 95.

Tranchepain, Travels, 119.

[455] Beck, L. M., Gazetteer, 64.

[456] Tranchepain, Travels, 159.

[457] Ibid., 249.

[458] Ibid., 135-136.

[459] Beck, L. M., Gazetteer, 34.

Niles, Weekly Register, XVIII., 112. Shawneetown, in 1820, received goods from New York by steamboat at $3 per cwt.

[460] Flint T., Recollections, 247. Speaks of these conditions.

[461] Beck, L. M., Gazetteer, 33-34.

[462] Flint, T., Recollections, 247-248.

[463] Niles, Weekly Register, XXVIII., 3.

[464] Ibid., XXIX., 55.

[465] Reynolds, J., My Own Times, 238.

[466] Niles, Weekly Register, XXIX., 215.

[467] Ibid., XXIX., 180.

[468] Ibid., XXX., 338.

[469] Flint, T., Recollections, 24.

[470] Ibid., 102-104.

[471] Niles, Weekly Register, XXXII., 36-37.

[472] Ibid., XXXV., 68.

[473] Hall, B., Travels, II., 395.

[474] Ibid., III., 322.

[475] Ibid., III., 323.

[476] Hall, B., Travels, III., 196-197.

[477] Niles, Weekly Register, XXXV., 387.

[478] Niles, Weekly Register, XXXIV., 122. The Miami Canal was filled with water in April 1828, and "a fleet of canal boats" arrived at Cincinnati on the sixteenth.

[479] Ibid., XXXVIII., 86-87.

[480] Flint, T., History and Geography, I., 351-352.

[481] Ibid., I., 352.

[482] Ibid., I., 148-149.

[483] Ibid., I., 431.

[484] Peck, J. M., Emigrant's Guide, 157-159.

Niles, Weekly Register, XXXVIII., 292. Gunpowder was exported from New Orleans to Louisville in 1830, the steamboat Tigress being blown up with 300 kegs on board.

[485] Flint, T., History and Geography, I., 263.

[486] Peck, J. M., Guide, 324.

Niles, Weekly Register, XL., 183, 194.

Flint, T., History and Geography, Appendix, 211. See these for reference to the vast increase in trade in 1831.

Ibid., I., 149.

_CHAPTER IV._

_EMIGRATION. GROWTH OF THE RIVER TOWNS._

During the War of 1812, the tide of immigration westward was almost completely arrested, and many of the settlements already established were broken up by the savages.[487] The war being over, and the Indians being deprived of their distinguished British ally,[488] profound peace was soon restored to all our borders, from the northeast to the southwest.[489] Immigration now set more strongly toward the West, for having been so long kept back, and the country was peopled with a rapidity unparalleled in the annals of any other nation.[490] "Shoals of immigrants were seen on all the great roads leading in that direction. Oleanne, Pittsburg, Brownsville, Nashville, Cincinnati, and St. Louis overflowed with them. Ohio and Indiana beheld thousands of new cabins spring up in their forests. The settlements which had been broken up during the war, were repeopled, and many immigrants returned again to the very cabins which they had occupied before the war. Boon's Lick, and Salt River, in Missouri, were the grand points of immigration, as were the Sangama and the upper courses of the Kaskaskia's in Illinois. In the south, Alabama filled with new habitations, and the current, not arrested by the Mississippi, set over its banks, to White River, Arkansas, and Louisiana, west of that river. The wandering propensity of the American people carried hundreds even beyond our territorial limits into the Spanish country."[491]

"This flood of immigrants of course increased the amount of transport, and gave new impulse to building,--in short, every species of speculation was carried to a ruinous excess. Mercantile importations filled the country with foreign goods. In three years from the close of the War, things had received a new face along the great water courses, and in all the favorable points of the interior. The tide began to ebb, and things to settle to their natural level. Between the general failure of the western banks, and the operation of this system, (branches of Bank of the United States, and Post-Office System--medium of sure and prompt remittance of a circulation everywhere uniform), western dealers were driven to the extremely burdensome and precarious resource of specie in their foreign transactions. Business and trade were brought to a dead pause. The evils were spread along a course of two thousand miles, and were experienced in the remote cabins, as well as the towns, and villages on the rivers. The result of a sound and uniform currency was seen in the restoration of business and credit; and commerce sprung up, like a Phoenix, from its ashes. Shapeless and meanlooking villages became towns, and the towns in neatness and beauty began to compare with those in the Atlantic country. The best evidence of the change, wrought by this order of things is, that produce and every species of vendible property rose to double and triple its value, during the season of general embarrassment."[492]

As early as 1813, the roads over the Alleghanies were in a very rough condition, though the Cumberland Road was partly made, and in the spring of this year there were considerable stretches of it used by the wagoners. For emigrants and the transportation of freight, there was no mode of conveyance but the large "road wagons", as they were called, usually drawn by five or six horses, and carrying sixty to seventy hundred weight. There were several routes by which these wagons approached the mountains, but after passing Cumberland they followed the one road, known as Braddock's Trail, which struck the Monongahela River at Brownsville, or Red Stone Fort, passing down the Laurel Hill, near Uniontown, then called Beesonstown.[493] The wagoners usually traveled in groups for company and to assist one another by doubling teams, on the steep hills, and to help in case of accidents. Howells says that it is his impression that his father paid between $3 and $4 a hundred weight (112 pounds) for the carriage of his goods to Brownsville.[494]

A mighty population was pouring into Ohio in 1813, a great number of the people coming from Lower Canada.[495] A "New England Emigration Society" was established in Boston, in 1815, for the purpose of promoting emigration to the western country. The association was composed of a considerable number of persons of all parties, who were determined to establish a colony of their own.[496] The Buffalo Gazette says, that during the spring of this year scarcely a day passed without the editor's noticing the passage of several families from New England through that village for the State of Ohio.[497] The monthly returns from the several land offices in Ohio and Indiana Territory exhibited an unparalleled sale of public land, and in some districts the sales had been doubled in the six months prior to February, 1815. The emigration to the State in the summer of 1814 was very great, the main road through the State being literally covered with wagons moving out families.[498]

The Register, of November 30, 1816, says, "Missouri and Illinois exhibit an interesting spectacle at this time. A stranger to witness the scene would imagine that Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas had made an agreement to introduce them soon as possible to the bosom of the American family. Every ferry on the river is daily occupied in passing families, carriages, wagons, negroes, carts, etc."[499] Much of the surplus produce of the State of Ohio was consumed by the numerous emigrants, who came from New York, and the eastern States, but more especially from Pennsylvania.[500] Many of these travelers followed the route through New York and down the Allegheny River, "260 wagons have passed a certain house on this route in nine days, besides many persons on horseback and on foot. The editor of the Gennessee Farmer observes, that he himself met on the road to Hamilton, a cavalcade of upwards of 20 wagons, containing one company of 116 persons on their way to Indiana, and all from one town in the district of Maine. So great is the emigration to Illinois and Missouri, also, that it is apprehended that they must suffer for want of provisions the ensuing winter."[501] Alabama was also receiving vast numbers of emigrants, one traveler having met about 3800 persons in nine days.[502]

Birkbeck, writing in 1818, says, "Old America seems to be breaking up, and moving westward. We are seldom out of sight, as we travel on this grand track; towards the Ohio, of family groups, behind and before us, some with a view to a particular spot. A small wagon with two small horses; sometime a cow or two, compromises their all; excepting a little store of hard earned cash for the land office of the district; where they may obtain a title for as many acres, as they possess half dollars, being one fourth of the purchase money. The wagon has a tilt, or cover, made of a sheet, or perhaps a blanket. The family are seen before, behind, or within the vehicle according to the road or the weather, or the spirits of the party."[503] "Such is the influx of strangers into this State (Indiana), that the industry of the Settlers is severely taxed to provide food for themselves, and a superfluity for newcomers."[504] Birkbeck advised the emigrants coming from England to the West, to land at an eastern part, proceed from thence to Pittsburg,[505] and then down the Ohio, disembarking at Shawneetown if bound to Illinois. Emigrants are advised to bring with them, clothing, bedding, household linen, simple medicines of the best quality, and sundry small articles of cuttlery, and light tools.[506] The expense of the journey from an eastern part to Birkbeck's settlement was estimated at £5 sterling per head.[507] Travelers coming overland, on horseback, were advised to go by way of Wheeling Chilicothe, and Cincinnati, from thence through Indiana to Vincennes.[508] Traveling, across the mountains to Pittsburg, was entirely disproportionate to the price of provisions, and very expensive considering the accommodations afforded; storekeepers laying on a profit of at least 50 per cent.[509] Fordham says that the passage by stage and the expense of a journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg was $50; the journey down the Ohio 900 miles from $10 to $15; to St. Louis by steamboat $20, on horseback $8.[510]

The route to the western country, by way of New Orleans, was attended with many disadvantages, being much longer and more dangerous, in consequence of a good deal of coasting, and the difficulties of the Gulf of Florida. The voyage from the Balize to New Orleans, a distance of 100 miles, was always tedious and vessels sometimes consumed three weeks in covering this distance. The steamboats, from New Orleans,[511] did not proceed at stated periods, and travelers were sometimes obliged to take up a long and expensive residence in that city. To attempt to engage a passage in a keel boat up the stream was an almost endless undertaking. For these reasons, emigrants were advised to cone overland to Pittsburg, and to float from there down the Ohio River to their destination.[512]

Fearon during his journey from Chambersburg to Pittsburg passed 63 wagons, with families from the several places following: 20 from Massachusetts, 10 from the district of Maine, 14 from Jersey, 13 from Connecticut, 2 from Maryland, 1 from Pennsylvania, 1 from England, one from Holland, 1 from Ireland; and about 200 persons on horseback and 20 on foot.[513] Fearon says that every emigrant whom he met on the Alleghanies, told hi m that he intended to settle in Ohio.[514] The population in Illinois, at this period, was to be found chiefly on the Wabash, below Vincennes, and on the banks of the Kaskaskia, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers.[515]

In the latter part of the year 1818 Flint writes as follows: "... the current of emigration, being here (Chambersburg) united, strangers from the eastern country, and from Europe, are passing in an unceasing train. An intelligent gentleman at this place informed me, that this stream of emigration has flowed more copiously this year, than at any former period, and that the people now moving westward are ten times more numerous than they were ten years ago. His computation is founded on the comparative amount of the stage coach business and on careful observation."[516] Flint advises emigrants to go from Baltimore to Wheeling as that route is cheaper than the one from Philadelphia to Pittsburg.[517] In 1819 travelers were not so numerous as in 1818, owing to the decline in trade, and depression in the price of land. Flint says, "travelers however are still so numerous that a stranger not fully aware of the rapidity with which new settlements are forming, and of the great populace of the eastern States, might be apt to imagine that the Americans are a singularly volatile people."[518] Nuttall remarks that "A stranger who descends the Ohio at this season of emigration cannot but be struck with the jarring vortex of heterogenous population amidst which he is embarked, all searching for some better country, which ever lies to the west."[519]

The prohibition of slavery contributed greatly to the population of Ohio, and turned the current of European emigration from Kentucky and Tennessee, and spread it widely not only over this State, but also over Indiana and Illinois.[520] The fertility of the soil, the low price of lands, the security of titles, and the high price of labor also served to attract emigrants to this State.[521]