# Historic Highways of America/Volume 9/Chapter 3

CHAPTER III
"THE NAVIGATOR"
AS the eighteenth century neared its close the great highways converging upon Pittsburg and its neighboring towns on the Youghiogheny and Monongahela became the routes of the great flood-tide of immigration which in a day filled the Middle West with towns and cities. The emigrant reached navigable waters at Pittsburg, if he came over Forbes's Road or the Pittsburg Pike; if he followed Braddock's Road he found himself on navigable waters at Brownsville, or, continuing the land journey, he reached Wheeling on the Ohio. If he came over the Genesee Road through New York he would reach the Allegheny waters at Warren or Watertown, Pennsylvania.
At any of these points he would, perhaps, provide himself with a handbook of information concerning his prospective route. ​One of these, The Navigator, was published in Pittsburg in the first year of the nineteenth century by Zadok Cramer. Its title-page (fifth edition) affirms the book to be "the trader's useful guide in navigating the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; containing an ample account of these much admired waters, from the head of the former to the mouth of the latter; a concise description of their towns, villages, harbours, settlements, &c with particular directions how to navigate them, in all stages of the water, pointing out their rocks, ripples, channels, islands, bluffs, creeks, rivers &c and the distances from place to place"
Perhaps the typical emigrant would not secure such a guide book but the information for which he made eager inquiry at his port of embarkation is contained here and is of great interest to the student of the times because of the variety of matters treated. Of the Ohio and its two great tributaries let us quote the following information:
"Monongahela
"This river rises at the foot of the Lau​rel Mountain, in Virginia, thence meandering in a N. by E. direction, passes into Pennsylvania, and receives Cheat river from the S. S. E. Thence winding to a N. by W. direction, separates Fayette and Westmorland from Washington county, and passing into Allegheny county receives the Youghiogheny river at Pittsburgh, fifteen miles below the mouth of the former, and by land, fifty-five below Cheat. The Monongahela is about 450 yards wide at its mouth, measuring from the top of bank to bank, and in the fall and spring freshes has water enough to carry ships of 400 tons burthen; these, however, subside quickly and render the navigation for such vessels very precarious. One great difficulty attending the navigation of vessels of burden down this river arises from the almost impossibility of keeping them in the proper channel, it being in many places very narrow, and full of short turns around points of islands which are numerous. This observation will also apply to the Ohio, especially as low down as Wheelen [Wheeling], ninety miles below Pittsburgh."
The waters of the Monongahela River, ​in those days as in these, were very muddy, and had it not been for the magnificent trees which abundantly lined the firm banks, the stream could not have been termed very beautiful. These trees were chiefly walnuts, black-oaks, hickories, maples, and button-woods, and afforded a bountiful supply of logs for the many saw-mills which the pioneers had already erected along the river at the mouths of the various tributaries. Mr. Cramer tells us that the lumber obtained from these logs was floated down to Pittsburg, Wheeling, or some more remote point, and sold for a price ranging from a dollar to a dollar and a half per hundred feet. The country of the Monongahela was, even at this early day (1806), well populated; the land along the river was fertile and productive, and sold at any price from twelve to thirty dollars an acre. The "bottoms" contained many valuable sugar-maples and Cramer estimated that, if properly managed, each tree would yield four pounds of maple-sugar per annum—about one dollar a tree each season.
"The mean velocity of the current of ​this river is about two miles an hour, and is in a middling state of the water, uninterrupted with falls, impeding the navigation, from Morgantown to its mouth, a distance of one hundred miles; thence upwards the navigation is frequently interrupted by rapids, but is navigable however for small crafts for fifty or sixty miles further. The west branch in high water is navigable for fifteen miles, and communicates with a southern branch of the Little Kenhawa, by a portage of eight miles."
According to The Navigator, such cereals as wheat, oats, barley, rye, and buckwheat were already raised to "great perfection" in the valley of the Monongahela. It was a soil especially adapted to raising exceptional wheat crops and Mr. Cramer informs us that the flour made from Monongahela Valley wheat sold for two dollars more per barrel in New Orleans than Kentucky flour. Apples and peaches were staple fruit crops of the Monongahela country and these fruits were not infrequently made into brandy. Peach brandy was a luxury in the South and sold at a dollar a gallon.
"Allegheny
"This is a beautiful, large and navigable river, taking its rise in Lycoming county, P. within a few miles of the head waters of Sinemahoning creek, a navigable stream that falls into the Susquehanna river, to which there is a portage of 23 miles. Thence pursuing a N. course passes into New-York state, winding to the N. W. about 20 miles, turns gradually to the S. W. enters Pennsylvania, and meandering in about that direction 180 miles, joins the Monongahela at Pittsburgh.
"Few rivers and perhaps none excel the Allegheny for the transparency of its waters. . .
"Its mean velocity is about two miles and a half an hour. In its course it receives many large and tributary streams; among these are the Kiskimenetas, Mohulbuckitum, Tobas, French creek, &c. French creek is navigable to Waterford; thence to Lake Erie is but fifteen miles portage. To render the communication more complete the legislature of Pennsylvania have passed a law for the erection of a turnpike between Waterford and Erie. Another communica​tion to lake Erie is by way of Chataughque creek and lake; here is a portage of only nine miles, and affording ground for an excellent waggon road. We understand a ware-house is already established at Chautaughque lake. The navigation by this route is said to be the best of the two. At the mouth of a creek, also called Chautaughque emptying into lake Erie, a town has been recently laid off called Portland nine miles from Chataughque lake. This town is about thirty miles below the town of Erie, and ten below the line between Pennsylvania and New-York, John M'Mahon proprietor."
The trade between the Allegheny River and the Lakes was at this time well established and, it was predicted, would become of great importance. Pittsburg was receiving from Onondaga salt works in New York State two thousand barrels of salt annually. Immense quantities of timber were also constantly being hurried toward their destinations by the current of the Allegheny. Quite an extensive trade in salt fish from Lake Erie was carried on in 1806, and Mr. Cramer expresses an earnest ​hope that this trade would be encouraged to the extent of superseding the importing of fish from beyond the mountains, for the fish brought over the mountains then cost twelve cents while those from Lake Erie could be offered for four cents and perhaps less per pound.
"In return we could send up whiskey, bar-iron, castings, cider, bacon, apples, glass, nails, &c. and this would be keeping trade among ourselves, which is always preferable to the sending away specie for articles of home consumption. It has been suggested that merchandize could be bro't to Pittsburgh from New-York, by way of the lake and down this river, for about three cents a pound, which is one half less than is given from Philadelphia. By this route, there would be a portage of fifteen miles from Albany on the Hudson to Schenectada on the Mohawk, 10 miles around the falls of Niagara, and fifteen between Erie and Waterford, making in all forty miles land carriage from New-York to Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvanians, however, are struggling for a turnpike road all the way over the mountains, which when com​pleated, will no doubt tend to lessen the very heavy carriages that are now paid on merchandize of all kinds."
The current of the Allegheny River is much more rapid than that of the Monongahela; and in the days of The Navigator, as now, the clear, transparent waters of the Allegheny marked their course across the yellow, muddy waters of the Monongahela. And even three miles below the junction, the waters of the Allegheny were to be distinguished from the Monongahela. "Here [at the junction of the two rivers] the Allegheny is about 450 yards wide, and when an island lying to the right is completely washed away, which is accomplishing rapidly, the river here will be at least 800 yards wide. Will not the inquiring mind, on examination, have cause to entertain an opinion with us, that the bed of this river has greatly shifted its situation; and that it once washed the hill now a considerable distance to the east; and that the ground on which Pittsburgh now stands has been made by its withdrawing, through time and accident, from that hill to its present channel?
"Ohio
"This river commences at the junction of the two above mentioned rivers, and here also commences its beauty. It has been described, as 'beyond all competition, the most beautiful river in the universe, whether we consider it for its meandering course through an immense region of forests, for its clean and elegant banks, which afford innumerable delightful situations for cities, villages and improved farms: or for those many other advantages, which truly entitle it to the name originally given it by the French, of La Belle Rivière.' This description was penned several years since, and it has not generally been thought an exaggerated one. Now, the immense forests recede, cultivation smiles along its banks, towns every here and there decorate its shores, and it is not extravagant to suppose that the day is not far distant when its whole margin will form one continued village."
Mr. Cramer further states that his reasons for such a supposition are numerous. Among those which he gives are: the large tracts of fertile lands that are connected ​with the Ohio River by means of the navigable waters that empty into it; the high, dry and usually healthy river bottoms of exceptional extent, fertility and beauty; and the extraordinarily superior navigation of the Ohio, by means of whose waters the abundant products of these extensive and fertile lands must eventually be distributed.
"At its commencement at Pittsburgh, it takes a N. W. course for about 30 miles, then turns gradually to W. S. W. and pursuing that course for about 500 miles, winds to the S. W. for nearly 160 miles, then turns to the W. for about 276 miles, then S. W. for 160 miles, and empties into the Mississippi in a S. E. direction, about 1100 below Pittsburgh, and nearly the same distance above New-Orleans, in lat. 36. 43 m. N. It is amazingly crooked, so much so indeed, that in some places a person taking observations of the sun or stars, will find that he sometimes entirely changes his direction, and appears to be going back again; but its general course is S. 60 d. W. Its general width is from 500 to 800 yards, but at the rapids and near the mouth, it is considerably wider."
​We can easily agree with Mr. Cramer that the numerous islands, found in the Ohio River, added greatly to its picturesque grandeur; yet, he reminds us, they caused many shoals and sandbars and greatly embarrassed navigation. Some of these islands contain several acres of rich and fertile soil and, The Navigator tells us, were covered with a luxuriant growth of timber; when cleared and planted with fruit trees the orchards thrived amazingly, bearing the choicest fruit and the crop seldom failing. This was also the case when fruit trees were planted on the river bottoms, the excellent crops, in both instances, being due to the same cause: a sandy, fertile soil.
"In times of high freshes, vessels of almost any tonnage may descend, and it is never so low, but canoes and other light crafts can navigate it. Many of the impediments that are now met with while the water is low, might in a dry time be got rid of, and that at a very inconsiderable expense: at least the expense would be by no means inadequate to the advantages accruing from the undertaking, if properly managed.
​"Rocks that now, during the dry season, obstruct or render dangerous the navigation of the large flat bottomed, or what are called Kentucky boats, might be blown, even a considerable depth under water; channels might be made through the ripples, and the snags and the fallen timber along the banks entirely removed.
"These improvements together with many others that might be enumerated will undoubtedly, sooner or later, be carried into effect, as they appear to be a national concern of the first importance.
"The Ohio has on its left in descending a part of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, and the S. W. territory; on the right, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana territory. It receives in its course many large, navigable streams, the principal ones are, Big Beaver, Muskingum, Little and Great Kenhawa, Sandy, Scioto, Little and Great Miami, Licking, Kentucky, Salt, Green, Wabash, Cumberland and Tennessee; these will be more particularly mentioned in their proper places."
It is of interest to note what Mr. Cramer has to say of the fish of the Ohio River. ​He tells us they were numerous and of various kinds: the catfish, weighing from three to eighty pounds; the buffalo, from five to thirty; the pike, from four to fifteen pounds; the sturgeon, from four to ten; the perch, from one to twenty-five; the sucker, from one-half a pound to six pounds; and occasionally a few herring were caught. A fisherman, drawing in his seine in the spring of 1805, found among other fish, it is said, a few shad of three or four pounds. These were caught at Pittsburg. A great many felt disposed to dispute that these were salt water shad considering the great distance from the sea, but all who tasted of them positively identified them, in taste and shape, as the shad which were caught in the Delaware River. Eels and soft-shell turtles, though occasionally caught, were not plentiful in 1806. The numerous and various kinds of wild ducks and the few geese which frequented the river often furnished food for pioneers descending the Ohio; for the purpose of shooting ducks and geese, turkeys, and occasionally a deer or bear, the boats were always well supplied with fire-arms.
​"We should be glad could some method be devised to ascertain annually the state of the trade of our rivers—could not houses for this purpose be established, say at Pittsburg and Louisville, to take an account of all cargoes that descend the Ohio? A statement of this kind published yearly would show the growing increase of our exportations, and no doubt would be interesting to the trading part of the community, and perhaps have a tendency to rouse the spirits of the more indolent and careless.
"To the vast quantities of produce and articles of our own manufacture that are sent down this river, consisting of flour, whiskey, peach brandy, cider, beer, bar-iron, hollow-ware, earthern-ware, cabinet works, boots, hoes, plow-irons, mill-irons, chairs, biscuit, bread, cheese, bacon, beef, pork, lumber, linen, &c. &c. we must not forget to mention a part of the articles which are brought up in return, viz. large quantities of cotton, furs, peltries, lead and hemp. As the articles of cotton and lead can be brought up in this way much cheaper than by bringing them over the mountains, and as they are in great and ​constant demand in this country, we hope that those concerned will use all due exertion in pushing this part of our trade, which in time we may presume will become a very considerable object to those engaged in it."
The "Instructions" in The Navigator to emigrants afford a very clear idea of the nature and needs of river travel in the first half-decade of the eighteenth century: The first thing to be attended to by emigrants was to secure a boat, and be on the alert to take advantage of the first flood. Mr. Cramer speaks with emphatic indignation concerning the dishonesty often manifested by the builders of the river boats. He asserts that a great per cent of the accidents which happened on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were due either to unpardonable carelessness or stinginess of the builder, who either slighted his work or used unfit timber. He earnestly recommends the appointment of boat-inspectors to be stationed wherever boats were built, thereby avoiding many serious accidents caused by unsafe boats. Mr. Cramer attempts to impress upon all who were ​purchasing Kentucky boats that those intended for navigating the Mississippi must necessarily be constructed differently and of much stronger timber; he suggests and urges that the owner have them narrowly examined, before embarkation, by one who understands the form and strength of a boat suitable for navigating the Mississippi River.
"Flat and Keel boats may be procured at New-Geneva, Brownsville, Williamsport, Elizabethtown, M'Keesport, on the Monongahela, and perhaps several places on the Youghiougheny; at Pittsburgh, Beaver, Charlestown, and Wheelen, Marietta, Limestone, Cincinnati, the Falls, &c. and at most of the above places vessels of considerable burden are built and freighted to the Islands, and to different ports in Europe, their principal cargoes consisting of flour, staves, cordage, cotton, hemp, &c."
The spring and autumn were the two seasons when the Ohio could be most advantageously navigated. The spring season began at the breaking up of the ice, about the middle of February, and lasted for three months. The fall season gener​ally began in October and lasted until the advent of winter, or about the first of December. At this time the forming ice prevented navigation. These spring and fall freshets, however, could not be called periodical, as they entirely depended upon the rainfall and the earliness or tardiness of the beginning and ending of winter. Nor were these seasons of high water entirely confined to the spring and autumn. It commonly occurred that in the summer season a heavy rainfall in the Appalachian ridges, where the creeks and rivers that flow into the Monongahela take their rise, would cause a considerable freshet in the Ohio; or a swelling of the current of the Allegheny and other rivers often happened in the summer months and occasioned a sufficient amount of water, if taken immediate advantage of, to render the navigation of the Ohio perfectly possible. These out-of-season freshets, however, subsided rapidly and if the owner of a boat wished to take advantage of one and go down the river, he had to embark immediately.
"When provided with a good boat and ​strong cable of at least 40 feet long there is little danger in descending the river in high freshes, when proper care is taken, unless at such times as when there is much floating ice in it. Much exertion with the oars is, at such times, generally speaking of no manner of use; indeed it is rather detrimental than otherwise, as such exertion frequently throws you out of the current which you ought to continue in, as it will carry you along with more rapidity, and at the same time always takes you right. By trusting to the current there is no danger to be feared in passing the islands as it will carry you past them in safety. On the other hand, if you row, and by so doing happen to be in the middle of the river on approaching an island, there is great danger of being thrown on the upper point of it before you are aware, or have time to regain the current. In case you get aground in such a situation, become entangled among the aquatic timber, which is generally abundant, or are driven by the force of the water among the tops or trunks of other trees, you may consider yourself in imminent danger; nothing but the presence ​of mind and great exertion can extricate you from this dilemma.
"As frequent landing is attended with considerable loss of time and some hazard, you should contrive to land as seldom as possible, you need not even lie by at night, provided you trust to the current, and keep a good look out; if you have a moon, so much the better. When you bring to, the strength of your cable is a great safe-guard. A quantity of fuel and other necessaries, should be laid in at once, and every boat ought to have a canoe along side, to send on shore when necessary.
"Though the labour of navigating this river in times of fresh is very inconsiderable to what it is during low water, when continual rowing is necessary, it is always best to keep a good look out, and be strong handed.—The wind will sometimes drive you too near the points of the islands, or on projecting parts of the main shore, when considerable extra exertion is necessary to surmount the difficulty. You will frequently meet with head winds, as the river is so very crooked that what is in your favour one hour, will probably be directly ​against you the next, and when contrary winds contend with a strong current, it is attended with considerable inconvenience, and requires careful and circumspect management, or you may be driven on shore in spite of all your efforts. One favourable circumstance is, that the wind commonly abates about sunset, particularly in summer.
"Boats have frequently passed from Pittsburgh to the mouth of Ohio in 15 days, but in general 10 days from Pittsburgh to the falls is reckoned a quick passsage.
"Descending the river when much incommoded with floating ice, should be as much as possible avoided, particularly early in the winter, as there is a great probability of its stopping your boat; however, if the water is high, and there is an appearance of open weather, you may venture with some propriety, if the cakes are not so heavy as to impede your progress, or injure your timbers; the boat will in such case, make more way than the ice, a great deal of which will sink and get thinner as it progresses, but on the other hand, if the water is low, it is by no means safe to em​bark on it when anything considerable of ice is in it.
"If at any time you are obliged to bring to on account of the ice, great circumspection should be used in the choice of a place to lie in; there are many places where the shore projecting to a point, throws off the cakes of ice towards the middle of the river, and forms a kind of harbour below. By bringing to in such a situation, and fixing your canoe above the boat, with one end strongly to the shore, and the other out in the stream sloping down the river, so as to drive out such masses of ice as would otherwise accumulate on the upper side of your boat, and tend to sink her and drive her from her moorings, you may lie with a tolerable degree of safety.—This is a much better method than that of felling a tree on the shore above, so as to fall partly into the river, for if in felling it, it does not adhere in some measure to the trunk, or rest sufficiently on the bank, the weight of accumulated ice will be apt to send it adrift, and bring it down, ice and all, on the boat, when no safety can be expected for it. The reflection here naturally occurs, how ​easy it would be, and how little it would cost, in different places on the river where boats are accustomed to land, to project a sort of pier into the river, which inclining down stream, would at all times insure a place of safety below it. The advantages accruing from such projection to the places where they might be made would be very considerable, bring them into repute as landing places, occasion many boats and passengers to stop there, who otherwise would not, and soon repay the trifling expense incurred by the erection.
"The above observations are more particularly applicable to the Ohio; the following apply to the Mississippi, and point out the greatest impediments and the most imminent dangers attending the navigation of this heavy-watered and powerful river:
"These are, 1st. The instability of the banks.
2. Planters, sawyers, and wooden islands.
​"We shall endeavor to instruct the unexperienced navigator how to avoid them. The instability of the banks proceeds from their being composed of a loose sandy soil, and the impetuosity of the current against their prominent parts, which, by undermining them unceasingly, causes them to tumble into the river, taking with them everything that may be above. And if when the event happens boats should be moored there, they must necessarily be buried in the common ruin, which unfortunately has been sometimes the case. For which reason, navigators have made it an invariable rule never to land at or near a point, but always in the sinuosity or cove below it, which is generally lined with ​small willows of the weeping kind, whence some call them although improperly, willow points, and which being generally clear of logs and planters, the landing is easily effected, by running directly into them, the resistance of the willows destroying a part of the boat's velosity, and the rest is overcome without much exertion by holding fast to the limbs which surround you.—In those places the river generally deposits the surplus of soil, with which it is charged from the continual cavings of the points, and so forms new land on one side by destroying some on the other.
"The banks of this river from where it receives the Missouri to its mouth, being with a few exceptions below high water mark, an immense country is inundated, when the river is in its highest state, by which those extensive swamps are formed and supplied, which prove the nurseries of myriades of musquitoes and other insects (to the no small inconvenience of the traveller) and the never failing source of grievous diseases to the inhabitants. There are also streams, which at all times sally forth from the main river with astonishing ​rapidity, and whose vortex extends some distance into the stream. Boats once sucked into such bayous are next to lost, it being almost impossible to force so unwieldy a machine as a flat bottomed boat against so powerful a current. It will therefore be safest for boats, never to keep too close to shore, but to keep some distance out in the river. To avoid planters and sawyers requires nothing more but attention, for they always occasion a small breaker where-ever they are, and if your boat seems to be hurried towards them row the boat from them, else if you are dilatory you must abide by the consequence.
"Wooden-Islands are more dangerous than real ones the former being an obstacle lately thrown in the way of the current, and the bed of the river not having had sufficient time to form that bar or gradual ascent from the bottom of the river to the island, which divides the current at some distance from the point of the island above water, the current will hurry you against them, unless you use timely exertion. From all this it must be evident how imprudent it is attempting to go after night, ​even when assisted by a clear moon; but after you are once arrived at Natchez, you may safely proceed day and night, the river from that place to its mouth being clear, and opposing nothing to your progress but a few eddies into which you may occasionally be drawn and detained for a short time."
* ↑ The Navigator (fifth edition), Pittsburg, 1806.
* ↑ "Planters are large bodies of trees firmly fixed by their roots in the bottom of the river, in a perpendicular manner, and appearing no more than about a foot above the surface of the water in its middling state. So firmly are they rooted, that the largest boat running against them, will not move them, but they frequently injure the boat. "Sawyers, are likewise bodies of trees fixed less perpendicularly in the river, and rather of a less size, yielding to the pressure of the current, disappearing and appearing by turns above water, similar to the motion of a saw-mill saw, from which they have taken their name. "Wooden-Islands, are places where by some cause or other, large quantities of drift wood, has through time, been arrested and matted together in different parts of the river."
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