Part 7

It has been suggested, that a navigation connecting Cayahogo, on Lake Erie, with Alexandria on the Potomak, should pass through Big Beaver Creek;[44] but it appears altogether improper that such a communication should descend so low as the mouth of this creek, thereby incurring the ascent of the Ohio to Pittsburg, and the Monongahela to the bases of the Allegany ridge. The longer route to New York seems to be vastly preferable, and, as it is now in progress, it must supersede the Pennsylvanian line.

I saw some people thrashing buck wheat: they had dug a hollow in the field, about twenty feet in {73} diameter, and six or eight inches in depth. In this the grain was thrashed by the flail, and the straw thrown aside to rot in the field. The wheat is cleared of the chaff by two persons fanning it with a sheet, while a third lets it fall before the wind.

Indian corn is separated from the husks or leaves that cover the ear, by the hands. In the evenings neighbours convene for this purpose. Apples are also pared for preservation in a similar way. These are commonly convivial meetings, and are well attended by young people of both sexes.

A respectable English family put ashore with a leaky boat, almost in the act of sinking. They had run foul of a log in a ripple. The craft, called family boats, are square arks, nine or ten feet wide, and varying in length as occasion may require. They are roofed all over, except a small portion of the fore part, where two persons row. At the back end, a person steers with an oar, protruded through a hole, and a small fire-place is built of brick. Such boats are so formed as to carry all the necessaries of new settlers. The plough, and the body of the waggon, are frequently to be seen lying on the roof; and the wheels hung over the sides. The bottom is made of strong plank, not liable to be stove in, except where the water is in rapid motion; and the whole fabric is exempt from the danger of upsetting, except in violent gales of wind. Family boats cost from thirty to fifty dollars at Pittsburg. A great proportion of the families to be seen, are from the northern parts of New York, and Pennsylvania, also from the state Vermont, and other parts. They have descended the Allegany, a river that I have not hitherto mentioned as a thoroughfare of travellers.[45]

The gentleman mentioned in a former paragraph, is Brigadier General L----k,[46] who {74} is at present a member of the Senate of the United States. I have had several accidental interviews with him, and find that he is acquainted with the late works of imagination and taste published in Edinburgh, down to the Second Series of the Tales of My Landlord.[47]

_October 28._ Settlers continue to be much retarded in getting down the river. Head winds oblige them to put ashore sometimes for a whole day. Families for the eastern parts of Ohio State, are proceeding by the road. The father may be seen driving the waggon; and the women and children bringing up two or three cows in the rear. They carry their provisions along with them, and wrap themselves in blankets, and sleep on the floors of taverns. The hostess here does not charge any thing for this sort of entertainment.

Travelling by land at this season is, for various reasons, economical. Families by this means avoid delay and expense at Pittsburg; they are not obliged to sell their waggons and horses at an under value there; but take them along, as a necessary stock for their farms; and they are not put to the expense of a boat, which would be ultimately sold for a mere trifle, or left to rot by the water side. Besides, their rate of travelling is now more speedy than by water. Those who go below Wheeling will have a farther advantage, as the distance from Pittsburg to that place is 38 miles shorter than by the river. The waggons and horses must also be of immediate use to those, who settle at a distance from navigable waters. It is impossible to state the distance to which horses and waggons should be carried from Pittsburg; this wholly depends on the state of the river, the quantity of goods to be transported, the price of freight, (if paying passage instead of purchasing a boat is contemplated,) the {75} price of a boat, and the certain loss on selling horses and waggons at Pittsburg. Strangers will do well to make strict inquiries, and the most careful calculations, of the expense of both modes of travelling, previous to the adoption of either of them.

After examining the advantage of the different ways of travelling, it will be but an ordinary exercise of candour to state wherein I have erred myself.--I purchased a skiff, too small and too weak for my purpose, and I ought not to have undertaken the passage without taking some person along with me, who would have been continually on the outlook for stones or logs under water, and who occasionally would have steered my bark. Being obliged to sit on a low seat with my back forward, I was most unfavourably placed for observing obstacles in the way, and, on approaching rapids, I was usually in the very draught of them, before I could discern the proper channel.

The weather has of late been cold during the night, and the season is so far advanced that I cannot calculate on sleeping hereafter in an open boat. To enable me to put my baggage ashore every night, I have procured smaller boxes, to supersede the use of larger ones. Travellers in this country ought not to adopt large boxes, which are the most liable to injury, from the jolting of waggons, and are comparatively unmanageable on every occasion. Eighty or a hundred pounds, are enough for each parcel.

There is not the least appearance of a rise on the river. I have exchanged my pine skiff for a larger and a stronger oak one, and have determined on getting once more upon the water.

During my stay here, I have had the satisfaction of living with a polite and respectable family, which has treated me with the utmost civility; {76} their integrity is beyond suspicion.--If I had entertained any doubt on that head, the very repacking of my baggage would at once have removed it.--My inventory is complete, not a single article is wanting.

FOOTNOTES:

[42] Had Flint read his _Navigator_ carefully, he would have found specific warnings on the subject of defective boats; these were on every occasion palmed off on the uninitiated by Pittsburg sharpers.--ED.

[43] For the early history of Beaver Creek, see Croghan’s _Journals_, volume i of our series, note 93.--ED.

[44] It was Washington’s favorite plan to unite the waters of the Potomac and Ohio, and in turn, those of the Ohio and Lake Erie, by means of canals. The Beaver River was always one of the possible links in this chain of inland communication between the Great Lakes and tidewater. As Flint observes, the Erie Canal (completed in 1825) was the most feasible, and eventually the only successful, undertaking to join the sea and the lakes.--ED.

[45] The Allegheny route was the common one for New England emigrants who had journeyed through New York on the old Genesee Road; it became of more importance after the Erie Canal was in operation. See Buttrick’s _Voyages_, volume viii of our series.--ED.

[46] For a brief biography of General Lacock, see Cuming’s _Tour_, volume iv of our series, note 57.--ED.

[47] “Tales of My Landlord,” by Sir Walter Scott, include _The Black Dwarf_, _Old Mortality_, _The Heart of Midlothian_, etc. The two former were published in 1816 and the latter in 1818.--ED.

LETTER VII[48]

Descend the Ohio from Beaver--Georgetown--Steubenville-- Wellsburgh--Warren--Wheeling--Marietta--Muskingum river--Guyandat river--Letarts rapids--Kanhaway river--Point Pleasant--Galliopolis--Big Sandy river--Portsmouth--Occurrences and Remarks interspersed.

_Portsmouth, Ohio, 18th Nov. 1818._

On the 29th of October I again got afloat.--The weather clear and fine, but the current of the river in most parts so slow that the eye could scarcely discover its motion.--Passed the mouth of Big Beaver Creek, 29¹⁄₄ miles from Pittsburg.

Stopped for the night at a tavern 42¹⁄₂ miles from Pittsburg. Opposite, on the Virginia shore of the river, stands Georgetown, a neat village, with a public ferry.--On little Beaver Creek are several grist and saw mills, a paper-mill, and several other machines. In the mouth of a creek, I observed that the surface of the water was tinged with the oil of naphtha.

A young gentleman, from Virginia, had stopped in the tavern sick; the hostess and neighbours {77} were very attentive to the unfortunate stranger.

_October 30._ At the distance of half a mile below Little Beaver Creek, the meridional line crosses the river, which separates Pennsylvania from Virginia on the south side of the river, and from the State of Ohio on the north side.

Big Yellow Creek falls into the Ohio on the north side. A few miles up this creek there is a settlement of Scotch Highlanders. The soil occupied by them is said to be thin and poor.

After pulling all day against contrary winds, which, in some straight parts of the river, raised waves that beat upon my boat with considerable force, I lodged at the Black Horse Tavern, on the Virginia side of the river, 63 miles from Pittsburg. The landlord told me that his charges were, in some measure, regulated by the appearance of his guests.--Where a family seem to be poor and clever, he does not charge any thing for their sleeping on the floor. (By clever, he meant honest, or of a good disposition.)

The hills that bound the narrow valley of the river are of sandstone and clay schist, with a bed of coal four or five feet thick. People acquainted with the country, say that the hills by the river, and by the creeks, are of a poorer soil than those inland, which are less steep. The process of inundation is probably the cause of the difference.

There is a wider interval between the river hills here than in the neighbourhood of Pittsburg, and the bottoms are of course wider; the greater part of them being on the north side of the river. On the south side negroes are numerous.

On the forenoon of the 31st a heavy rain fell, accompanied with loud peals of thunder.--Reverberation {78} amongst the rocky hills and woods greatly augmented the sound.

The margin of the river is lined with masses of sandstone of enormous size. Others lie in the middle, with their rounded and scratched tops exposed above water. All these must have been detached from the river hills.

Arrived at Steubenville, on the right bank of the Ohio. This town stands on a second or higher bottom, exempt from the inundations so unpleasant on the first or lower plains. There are several hundred acres of this dry ground adjacent to the town, the largest tract of the kind that I have seen between the river and the hills.

This place is named Steubenville, from Baron Steuben, in consideration of his philanthropic services rendered to America, during the revolutionary war. It contains upwards of 2000 people; and it is regularly laid out, and the houses built of brick, wood, and a few are of stone, all covered with shingles. A newspaper is printed in the town; it contains also a woollen manufactory, a paper-mill, a grist-mill, and a small cotton-mill. These machines are wrought by steam. There are also two earthenware manufactories, and a brewery in the town, four preachers, six lawyers, five surgeons, twenty-seven shops, sixteen taverns, two banks, and a considerable number of artisans, necessary to the existence and increase of the place.

The aspect of the river hills, by Steubenville, convey the idea that they are better land, and not so apt to be washed down by rains, as those in the neighbourhood of Pittsburg.--I have had no opportunity of inquiring into the cause.

If I am not mistaken, Steubenville contains a greater proportion of orderly and religious people, {79} than some other American towns which I have seen. I entertain a very favourable opinion of several citizens, to whom I was introduced.

_November 3._ After having left the town, and proceeded about a mile down the river, Mr. Hamilton the tavern-keeper, with whom I had lodged, came along the bank, on horseback, calling after me. I landed, and he delivered to me an article, that I had neglected to pack up.

Passed a young man in a small skiff; he had not ballast enough for keeping head against the wind, which twirled his vessel round, and occasionally drifted him up the stream. He put ashore, as did also a family boat, that could not get onward.

The wind having increased, I found it expedient to land at Wellsburgh, and wait till the gale abated. The waves were too large for such a small bark, and, in making the crossings necessary to keep in the proper channel, I was in danger of exposing the broadside too much to the weather.

Wellsburgh, (formerly Charlestown,) stands on the Virginia side of the river. It is a small town; I observed in it a court-house, a jail, a large store-house, and several taverns. The margin of the river is so shallow, that I could not push my skiff within twelve feet of the dry ground. There is no wharf or artificial landing place here, or at any of the towns that I have seen by the river. The floods sweep off almost every thing that is erected within the banks; even the roads that are scooped out of the beach are at times destroyed. Taverns (out of town) have only a rude footpath cut in the bank, and many of them have not a trace formed by the hands of man.

_Afternoon._ The wind calmed, and I proceeded downward. I came up with two young men in a {80} small skiff; one of them put off his coat to row, and the other paddled with an oar. Their intention was evidently to keep before me, but they were soon disappointed. When one small boat comes up with another, a sort of race is almost invariably the consequence. I have already acted a part in several of them, and have uniformly got foremost. On one occasion I was opposed by three men in a smaller skiff than my own. I impute my success to the superior construction of my vessel, and to the extraordinary breadth of my oars. It has occurred to me, that the oars in general use are much too narrow, and that by adopting broader ones, we would avail ourselves more of the _vis inertiæ_ of the water, that of course is the sole cause of locomotion in a vessel propelled by rowing.

On a dry bar, or island of gravel, I observed that none of the weeds were close by the present margin of the water, and that they were all on ground at least two feet higher than that line, an evident proof that the surface of the water must have been about two feet higher during the summer months. At that time it must have been a much easier task to descend the river.

I landed in the evening at Warren,[49] a small town on the north bank. At this place there was a pedlar’s boat, a small ark, which is removed from one town to another. Internally it is a shop, with counter, balances, &c. around the sides are shelves, with goods, in the usual form.

_4th._ Last night the tavern had been in an uproar with a large party of gamblers.--Their room had no door, and that in which I slept had none, so that I heard much swearing and loud vociferation. About four o’clock one of the gentlemen retired from play, and laid himself down beside me. {81} A short time afterwards another entered the room, when the bar-keeper advised him to become a third of our party; this he declined. The bar-keeper next advised that he should take a part of the clothes from our bed, and an adjoining one, and with them make a bed for himself on the floor.--This he also declined; probably judging that the attempt would be opposed.

This morning a contrary wind blew hard. Immediately below the town there is a rapid current, not much ruffled by the breeze, but a long stretch of deeper water beyond it is rolling with waves.[50] Where the waves and the stream meet, white breakers are formed. Wishing to avoid these as much as possible, I took a young man of the neighbourhood with me, and availed myself of his local knowledge.

Wheeling is a considerable town on the left bank of the river, ninety-six miles from Pittsburg. It is expected that the new road from Baltimore to this place will be completed in the course of a year.[51] This being a national highway, on which no tolls are to be levied, and the shortest connection between a sea-port and the Ohio, a great increase of trade is consequently anticipated.[52] Hereafter, Baltimore will be the most proper landing place for Europeans who would settle in western America. At present the carriage of goods from Baltimore to Wheeling is cheaper than from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. From this it is evident, that the new route is already the shortest and the cheapest.

About four and a half miles below Wheeling, I was surprised at hearing the river making a great noise, the Pittsburg navigator not giving any notice of a rapid, and as a thick fog prevented me from seeing the cause, I went on shore to reconnoitre. Before reaching the place from whence {82} the noise proceeded, a boy informed me that a great fresh (flood) in M’Mahon’s Creek, happened last summer, at a time when the Ohio was low, and that it had carried earth and trees from the bottom land, together with a house and a family, into the river. The devastation produced by this torrent is truly astonishing. It has cut a great chasm through the bottom land, which is about twenty-five feet high, and scooped it out many feet lower than the surface of the Ohio. A large bar, that in some measure dams the river, has large trees intermixed with it; their roots and branches standing above the water. This is the obstacle and cause that occasion the noisy ripple.

The last tavern that we passed here, had no sign-board. In consequence of which I supposed it to be a private house, and, after sailing several miles down the river, was obliged to put ashore, when nearly dusk, at a farm-house about nine miles below Wheeling.

_November 5._ The family with whom I lodged last night, seem to be industrious and well disposed. Two daughters were busily engaged in tailor work for the males. This, they said, is a common practice in the country. They also told me of a young lady of the neighbourhood, who had just gone to the house of her bridegroom, to make his marriage suit. As this occurrence was told with some degree of disapprobation, it is not to be viewed as in unison with the manners of the people.

Twelve miles and a half below Wheeling, and a quarter of a mile from the river, on the left-hand side, there is a remarkable mound of earth, called the Big Grave. This hill is about sixty-seven feet high, a hundred and eighty feet broad at the base, and about twenty-two feet broad at the top, which is a little hollow. Some have supposed that the earth {83} has been brought from a distance; but, as something similar to a ditch is to be seen on one side of it, and as the neighbouring surface is uneven, there can be no strong reason to warrant the conclusion. Several fallen trees on the sides, (for it is covered with a strong growth of timber,) have exposed the component earth, which is a fine vegetable soil. It is not known that the present Indian people perform such works, nor is it believed that their traditions inculcate veneration towards these monuments; hence their origin is perfectly obscure.

On the right-hand side of the river, and about four miles below Grave Creek, a bed of coal is wrought. It lies in a horizontal position, and under high-water mark. Boats take in lading close by the mouth of the mine.

Lodged at a tavern thirty-four miles from Wheeling, after rowing against head-winds, which rendered the work somewhat fatiguing. In the evening a number of young men came in from a husking of Indian corn in the neighbourhood; they commenced drinking and swearing, all bawling out and talking at once. Such noisy gabbling I never before heard.

_November 6._ To-day I got into a long stretch of the river, where it is straight for seventeen miles. This part is called the Long Reach.[53] The wind blew upward, and opposed a rolling surface to my progress. The labour was hard, but the headway very small; family boats have been obliged to land. I saw some young men in a canoe who had just killed a deer in the act of crossing the river.

Lodged at a tavern about half way down the long Reach. Two old women, (sisters,) were there, one was in quest of her husband, and the other of her daughter. The uncle is forty-five years of age, and the niece sixteen. Affinity and disparity of {84} age united, have not been sufficient to prevent the elopement.

From Wheeling to near this place, coal, limestone, and sandstone are abundant.

In my passage, I have seen twenty-five islands. Some of them are of considerable size; the second below Pittsburg is six miles long. Islands being covered with timber, varying in size from the shortest willows by the water’s edge, to tall trees in the centre, have a beautiful appearance when viewed from the river either above or below them. I have descended twenty-two ripples. In a few of these, the stranger is apt to feel a considerable anxiety from being swept hastily along amongst logs, with their tops above water, and over stones and logs sunk beneath its surface.

_November 7._ The inconvenience and expense that attend putting my baggage ashore every night, and on board every morning, are great. Tavern-keepers’ servants are usually of their own families. Freemen in early life, they, in many cases, disregard the parental command, however reasonable. If I mistake not, the assistance which I paid dearly for, was sometimes procured by my own address rather than a sense of duty on their part. Although I am now a good waterman, and outsail every vessel I see, I resolved to adopt a more convenient, though less expeditious way of travelling.

I applied to the master of a large keel boat, on its way for Portsmouth, at the mouth of great Sciota river, to be taken on board. He refused to take me as a passenger, but was willing to accept of me on condition that I would row in the place of a man who was about to leave him. I agreed to work; for in my skiff I wrought very hard. I changed my place, but did not improve my condition.