xt702v2c8c01 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt702v2c8c01/data/mets.xml State Industrial and Commercial Conference (1887 : Louisville, Ky.) 1887  books b92-196-30611526 English Capital Printing Co., : Frankfort, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Railroads Kentucky History. Kentucky Commerce. Transportation systems, together with a review of transportation problems and opportunities to be developed  : papers read at the State Indusrial and Commercial Conference, held in Louisville, Oct. 4, 1887. text Transportation systems, together with a review of transportation problems and opportunities to be developed  : papers read at the State Indusrial and Commercial Conference, held in Louisville, Oct. 4, 1887. 1887 2002 true xt702v2c8c01 section xt702v2c8c01 



      KENTUCKY RESOURCES.









TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS,



               TOGETHER WITH



  A REVIEW OF TRANSPORTATION PROB-
      LEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES TO
              BE DEVELOPED.



PAPERS READ AT THE STATE INDUSTRIAL AND
  COMMERCIAL CONFERENCE, HELD IN LOU-
      ISVILLE, OCTOBER 4th, 1887.



     FRANKFORT, KY.:
PRINTED BY THE CAPITAL PRINTING COMPANY.
         1887.

 This page in the original text is blank.


 


THE COMMERCIAL AND RAILROAD
     DEVELOPMENT OF KENTUCKY.

           BY BASIL W. DUKE.



                II
THE KENTUCKY RIVER IN ITS RELATION
       TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
EASTERN KENTUCKY COAL FIELD.

         BY J. STODDARD JOHNSTON.


 

TRANSPORTATION SUBJECTS.



THE COMMRCIAL AN]D THE RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT OF KEN-
                           TUCKY.
                      BY BASIL W. DUKE.
  The subject of this paper, as given me by the committee,
was "The Railroad Development of Kentucky, Present and
Prospective." I found some difficulty in determining how
to treat a subject of that nature. The development of the
railroad system and that of other interests (of a material
and commercial character)-that is to say, the general devel-
opment of the State-are so closely connected and interde-
pendent, that it is impossible to consider them altogether
apart from each other, and hardly possible to assign definite
limits to the consideration of either.
  If iv were enough to simply enumerate the railroads con-
structed and operated within the territory of Kentucky, men-
tion the dates of their inauguration, note their present status,
define their rc ites and state their mileage, the task would be a
comparatively easy one. But certainly much more than this is
required. The railroad development of any community, prop-
erly regarded, means something more than is included only in
the extension of lines and branches and increase of mileage.
Regarded solely in its material, physical aspect, and leaving
out of question, altogether, the influence the railroad has ex-
erted as a factor in education and moral civilization, it yet
comprehends matter beyond the mere laying down of tracks
and provision of equipment. In other words, in this, as in all
other subjects of real importance, impulses and consequences,
as well as agencies, should be studied and rightly estimated.
The investigation of the origin, progress and accomplished
extent of railroad construction, necessitates inquiry into the
causes which have induced and stimulated such construction,
and the reasons which may still further impel it.

 
5



  The history of such development will be imperfect, unless it
can be shown how and to what extent, effect has responded to
effort, and results have satisfied the conditions which suggested
or demanded that railways be made.
  Without commerce, the arts and industries would languish
and perhaps perish. Without some systematic means of trans-
portation, commerce, in its modern character and import, would
be impossible. The intense and ceaseless competition pervading
all the industrial and commercial world, and by which commu-
nities are as much affected as individuals, makes the employ-
ment of the best and most perfect methods of transportation,
very largely, the measure of success; and every community
seeks an expression of its commercial necessities and wants in
an adequate railway system. The oft repeated assertion that
nothing of human institution can remain stationary in any form
or condition, may not be, and I believe is not, absolutely true.
But, unquestionably, a community may attain a certain stage of
material and commercial development, when non-progression
is not only relative but actual decadence, because its capital
and business will be attracted and absorbed by other commu-
nities which do employ improved methods. The effect may be
likened to that which would happen in modern warfare, should
one nation suddenly discover and use a fire-arm vastly superior
to any now known. All other nations would at once be rele-
gated very nearly to the condition of savage peoples whose
armies are equipped with bows and spears, and be virtually
incapacitated for contest with the possessor of the new weapon.
The railway has wholly abolished and taken the place of the
old methods of travel and carriage, by land, for great distances.
It has made possible travel and traffic which, a century ago,
no man could have imagined; has rendered easy and rapid
communication between points so remote that only the curious
and adventurous traversed the intermediate territory; and has
opened to civilization and commerce vast regions which, a gen-
eration since, were visited only by the explorer and hunter.
At the same time, in facilitating commercial intercourse, it has
so quickened industry, so expanded the needs and desires of
mankind, and, as a consequence, so immensely increased pro-
duction and trade, that it has multiplied many fold the traffic

 
6



which the water-routes carry, and, for the conduct of local
business, stimulated every possible means and form of trans-
portation.  Nevertheless, railway construction -is not always
attempted judiciously, or to the best advantage of all con-
cerned. Lines which are little needed, and render no service
commensurate with the cost of their construction, are some-
times built with money which would have sufficed to complete
roads that could be operated successfully. It is no easy matter
to suggest criteria by which the necessity or benefit of addi-
tional railroad service to a territory already provided with it
may be determined. Very many considerations must influence
the solution of such a question, and the data are not always
the same in all cases.
  In his exceedingly interesting paper, published in October,
1881, entitled the " Standard of Railway Service," Mr. Edward
Atkinson has essayed to compute the railway extension that
will be necessary within the next twenty years from that date,
to meet the demands of the whole country. Assuming, as a
standard of comparison, the railway mileage of Massachusetts
at "1,950 miles in a territory of 7,800 square miles, or one
linear mile to each four square miles of territory," and defining
this as 100 per cent., he divides, for the purposes of such com-
parison, the States and Territories into five classes, and esti-
mates the increase of mileage in each, within the period
indicated, which their growth in population and general devel-
opment will probably require. It will be observed that he does
not base his comparison upon Massachusetts' ratio of railway
mileage to her entire area of 8,315 square miles, for the reason,
perhaps, that, to use his own words, " a large part of the State
is mountainous or sterile, and does not need railway communi-
cation to one-half the extent in which such service will be called
for in the near future in many other States." It is to be
regretted that Mr. Atkinson, deterred, doubtless, by the magni-
tude of the subject, and the apprehension that what was meant
to be a brief paper might swell into a volume, has merely
stated conclusions, with barely a hint of the data and reasoning
upon which they are predicated. He computes, that by the date
of the expiration of these twenty years, there will have been
needed and built 117,500 miles of new railroads; basing his cal-

 
7



culation upon the rate of construction in the year 1881, and
allowing for "at least one commercial crisis and a railway
panic," in the two decades. He places Kentucky in class
second of this division, which he thinks will require one linear
mile of railway to eight square miles of territory. He, there-
fore, estimates that, in 1900, Kentucky will require 4,710 miles
of railroad, as against 1,598 miles in operation in 1881. But
this computation is made on the estimate, so long received, of
the area of Kentucky as being only a little over 37,000 square
miles. Computed on an area of 42,600 square miles, which
more recent, and, we have reason to believe, more accurate sur-
veys have assigned her, the railway mileage in Kentucky,
according to this formula of Mr. Atkinson's, should be, in the
year 1900, 5,325 miles, an increase over the mileage of 1881 of
3,727, and over her present mileage of 3,190; larger, too, than
that of Massachusetts in 1881 by 3,375.
  There are peculiar reasons, however, why Massachusetts
should require an amount of railroad service, in proportion to
her territory, much beyond other wealthy and prosperous
States; reasons which make all comparison, of the kind at-
tempted, difficult, and may cause the most careful deductions
to prove fallacious. Massachusetts has a much larger popula-
tion, in proportion to extent of territory, than any other State,
with the exception of Rhode Island. In 1880 her population,
per square mile, was more than double that of New York, and
nearly treble that of Pennsylvania. While, notwithstanding
the sterility of her soil, nearly every available acre is in culti-
vation, the great bulk of this population lives in the towns and
cities, is engaged in manufacturing, and must be fed with
breadstuffs and meats largely drawn from distant sources of
supply. I confess to some surprise at the extent of the urban
population of Massachusetts, compared with that of the agri-
cultural States, upon an examination of the list of towns and
the multitude of their inhabitants, as furnished by the census
of 1880. Beside a vast number of villages of a population less
than one thousand, Massachusetts counted, then, one hundred
and sixty-nine (169) towns with a population of more than one
thousand, of which forty-seven (47) had a population of more
than five thousand. At the same date Kentucky had forty-

 

8



three (43) towns with a population of more than one thousand,
of which ten (10) had a population of more than five thousand.
The mere distribution of food supply to this manufacturing
population, having to be made daily, promptly and regularly,
would, of itself, necessitate a railway service more comprehen-
sive than would be required in a State like Kentucky, whose
people are fed by the country at their doors. The vast traffic
of the manufactories also demands the amplest railway accom-
modation to furnish the immense quantities of fuel consumed,
to bring and distribute the raw material used in the mills, and
then to collect and carry away the fabrics. Kentucky will
require-does now need-more miles of railway than Massa-
chusetts has or wants; but it is inconceivable that she will
ever require as large a railway mileage in proportion to her
territory, while it is already apparent, I think, that she will
require one greater than Mr. Atkinson computes.
  In neither Kentucky nor Massachusetts was railway con-
struction commenced and prosecuted in advance of the com-
plete settlement of the country and occupation of the soil, as
has been the case with some of the newer States and Territories.
The railroads did not here anticipate population and call into
existence the commerce and business they were meant to serve.
They were not built here, as in the far west, to carry immi-
gration and give value to lands which, in their absence, were
not worth cultivation. The railway lines, now in operation
in Kentucky, were constructed in obedience to the demand
for more adequate methods of transportation, in lieu of others
which failed to meet the increasing traffic which yet grew out
of interests on which labor and money had already been ex-
pended and business previously existent. Our future railway
extension will almost certainly be only in response to similar
needs, in aid of properties whose potential values may be well
ascertained, and to fully utilize resources which have long been
partially at the service of industry and trade.
  The past railroad development of Kentucky has been prac-
tical and useful, and not at all either experimental or spec-
ulative in its character; the future prosperity of the State
will depend, in no small degree, upon whether it will con-
tinue to be as conservative. I have already called attention

 

9



to the difference between the development of a territory of
whose population and traffic the railroad is the original and
chief instrument, and of one where it is intended to serve the
wants of a population already resident and actively engaged
in the prosecution of an existent commerce. To understand
properly what railway service has already done, and may yet
do for this Commonwealth, we ought to consider, to some ex-
tent, what were her means of communication and commercial
exchange before the era of railways. In this connection it is
not less useful than interesting to trace the paths by which
immigration first entered Kentucky, and by which her people,
in the earlier period of her settlement, held communication
with the older communities whence they came. To those who
would appreciate a graphic and exhaustive treatment of this
certainly very attractive feature of the history of our fathers,
I would commend the perusal of a pamphlet of acknowledged
accuracy, "The Wilderness Road," by Capt. Thomas Speed.
of Louisville, the second in number of the Filson Club pub-
lications. For all that I need say on this head, I am quite
content and cannot do better than to quote briefly from his
narrative.
  Speaking of the extraordinary western movement of popu-
lation-almost entirely directed to Kentucky-which immedi-
ately succeeded the Revolutionary war, he says: " Much
interest attaches to the ways of travel over which these im-
migrants came.  Through the great wilderness a vast con-
course made its way. But the direction, character and features
of the roads are but little understood. There is no descrip-
tion in existence showing them as they appeared when alive
with western movers. It is only by reference to numerous
authorities, many of them rare and difficult to procure, that
any account can be obtained. Many interesting facts are found
in the almost illegible manuscript of old letters, journals and
diaries, and many exist only in traditional form.
  " Capt. Imlay, an officer in the Revolutionary war, who wrote
from personal observation, and whose book was first published
in 1792, gave a brief account of the courses of travel from the
East to Kentucky. From him we get a very distinct statemen
        2

 


10



of two routes of travel-the one down the Ohio river, the other
'through the great wilderness,' by way of Cumberland Gap.
  6"He says travelers from the more northerly States passed
along a road which ran out from Philadelphia, through the
upper and central points of Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, and
from thence made their way down the Ohio river. South of
this Pennsylvania road another led out from Baltimore, pass-
ing Old Town and Cumberland Fort on the Potomac river,
and along Braddock' s road to Red Stone Old Fort (now
Brownsville), on the Monongahela river, sixty miles above its
mouth. From that point travelers also made their way to
Kentucky by water. This lower road subsequently became
the celebrated National Turnpike or Cumberland road, the
General Government having improved it and made it a post
road, and a great connecting link between the East and West.
  "Even as late as 1792, when Imlay wrote, there was no such
convenience as a regular business of carrying passengers and
their luggage down the Ohio, but at Pittsburg or Old Fort a
flat-boat or passenger boat might be obtained, according to
the good luck of the traveler. Notwithstanding the obstacles
and dangers of the way, much the greater number of immi-
grants seemed to consider the route through the wilderness-
the mountains of Virginia and Cumberland Gap-as preferable.
Capt. Speed says of this, the ' Wilderness Road:'
  " The distance from Philadelphia to the interior of Kentucky
by way of Cumberland Gap was nearly eight hundred miles.
The line of travel was through Lancaster, Yorktown and
Abbottstown to the Potomac river at Watkins' Ferry; thence
through Martinsburg and Winchester, up the Shenandoah
Valley through Staunton, and following the great trough
through the mountain ranges, it passed over the high ground
known as the divide;' there it left the waters which 'run
toward sunrise,' and reached an important station at the
waters of New River, which run to the west. At that point
another road, which led out from Richmond through the cen-
tral parts of Virginia, intersected or rather came into the one
just described. Thus were brought together two tides of immi-
grants. Near the 'forks of the road' stood Fort Chissell, a
rude block-house, built in 1758 by Colonel Bird, immediately

 

11



after the British and Americans captured Fort Duquesne from
the French, and called it Fort Pitt. From Fort Chissell to
Cumberland Gap was nearly two hundred miles. The routes
of travel marked out at that day are still used. The roads
which lead through the Valley of Virginia, commencing at
the Potomac, and passing through Martinsburg, Winchester,
Staunton, Lexington, Pattonsburg, Amsterdam, Salem, Big
Spring, Christiansburg, Ingles' Ferry, Newbern, Mac's Mead-
ows, Wytheville, Marion, Abingdon, are the same which. were
laid out and traveled in the early days."
  The road, or rather "trace," was first marked out by Daniel
Boone, and, Capt. Speed justly says, is a " monument to his
skill as a practical engineer and surveyor."
  "The Legislature of Virginia very early recognized the neces-
sity for a wagon road to Kentucky. In 1779 an act was passed
to the effect that, whereas great numbers of people are settling
in the country of Kentucky, and great advantages will redound
from the free and easy communication with them; commis-
sioners were appointed to explore the country on both sides of
the mountains, and trace out the most convenient site for the
road.
  I But no wagon road was made until many years thereafter.
The settlers came in such greatly increasing numbers that, by
the year 1790, the population of Kentucky was 73,000, and in
1800 it was 220,000. A very large proportion came over the
Wilderness road, and that way, as we have already seen, was
the only practicable -route for all return travel; yet it was only
a track for weary, plodding travelers on foot or horseback,
whether man, woman, or child.
  "There is a striking difference between routes selected by
the pioneers and those selected in later years for railroad
construction.  The one is the opposite of the other in some
respects. The pioneer avoided the water-courses-the civil
engineer seeks them. The pioneer went directly across the
various streams east and west of the Cumberland range; he
crossed the Holston, Clinch, Powell, Cumberland, and Rock-
castle; he climbed and descended the mountain ridges which
lay between the rivers. The civil engineer, on the contrary,
in locating the railroad which connects Virginia and Kentucky,

 


12



threaded the rocky defiles of New and Kanawha rivers, and
entered the level lands of the State through its northeast
corner. The rugged sides of a mountain water-course afford
the poorest natural foot-way, and necessitate frequent crossings
from side to side. In constructing a railroad, however, these
obstacles are removed.  The side-cut and the tunnel open a
pathway unknown to the pioneer."
  This is unquestionably true of what, I may term, the details
in the course of any given route; but, as a rule, the railroads,
and the ruder tracks which preceded them, have followed the
same general direction of travel and communication. In that
region, of which Capt. Speed particularly speaks, upon the
frontiers of Virginia, where nature seems to have exerted her-
self to prevent the intrusion of man, there are piled obstacles
which not only deterred the pioneer, but, we can readily be-
lieve, might have turned even those whom some rough satirist
has characterized as " Nat'rally better ingineers than the ingi-
neers themselves, the b'ar, the buffler and the Injun." And
the fastnesses which the pioneer dared not penetrate, were not
attempted by his immediate successors and descendants. Not
so, however, as regards the routes, no matter how arduous or
rugged, which the pioneer could and did explore. They were
followed by the generation which took his place; at least so
soon ax there was adequate inducement and any methods of
commercial exchange. When the continuous flow of immigra-
tion westward had partially populated the territory north of
the Ohio and that south of the Tennessee, the Kentuckian be-
gan to trade with his neighbors over the same roads by which
his fathers had come into the land. He did not, indeed, ven-
ture where the skill and energy of those who constructed the
Chesapeake and Ohio have since pushed its daring course, but
by means of the pack-horse jtnd the flat-boat he traded with
those who dwelt on the upper Ohio. He retrod the steps of
his sires along the "Wilderness Road" to swap and barter
with his kinsmen in Virginia and East Tennessee; and doubt-
less there are old men yet living who remember to have heard
the Kentucky drovers crack their whips as they pressed
through the Saluda Gap into the Carolinas.
  Subsequently the steamboats served the same traffic on the

 

13



river, and the turnpikes pursued the same course to the south.
And now the railway lines are reaching out in precisely the
same directions. The iron tracks stretch along the banks of
the Ohio and point towards Cumberland Gap.
  With the extraordinary increase of population which has
been mentioned-a growth which, when the circumstances of
the times and the difficulties attending immigration are re-
membered, may be regarded as unparalleled in the history of
American civilization-it is not surprising that a people so
enterprising and energetic. should have invincibly desired to
extend their commerce, and utilize to its best capacity the
magnificent region they had won from nature and the sav-
age. In 1800 Kentucky had a population, according to the
United States census returns, of 220,995. In 1810 the pop-
ulation had increased to 406,511, and in 1820, when the first
children born upon her soil had scarcely reached middle age,
she counted 516,317 souls within her borders. Very soon
after the hardy and restless pioneers had broken the forest
and begun to till their fields, they looked anxiously about
for somebody with whom they might trade. The fertile soil
supplied them abundantly with bread; the superb timber
which covered it with the material with which to construct
dwellings; and the skins of the game which fell before their
rifles with clothing. But they were not the sort of people
to be satisfied merely with food, shelter and raiment; al-
though they were provided, indeed, with coonskins as cur-
rency. In a comparatively brief period they were able to
produce the cereals largely in excess of what was needed
for their own consumption, and from the beginning the Ken-
tuckian has been a lively breeder of live stock.
  They brought with them, too, from Virginia a crop which
is cultivated almost entirely for commerce, and always has
commanded, and always will command, money when it can
find markets. Tobacco seems to have been one of the first,
as it has always been one of the most important, crops grown
in Kentucky. It is related that Boone, during one of his
earliest explorations of the country, and some years before
the current of immigration set in, was very nearly captured
by a band of Indians while he was "handling" a small but

 

14



excellent crop of the staple, which he had raised near one of
his cabins in the heart of the wilderness. With all the ele-
ments of wealth and material for commerce around them and
ripe for development, it is not to be supposed that such a
people would remain idle and fail either to see or improve
their advantages. Aggressive, and imbued with the instinct
of civilization and progress, they were not inclined to relapse
into barbarism. But where were they to find markets  It
was comparatively easy to float down, but extremely difficult
to work up the broad stream of the Ohio. Yet we find that,
as early as 1793, a line of Ohio packet boats (flat and keel-
boats) was established between Cincinnati and Pittsburg, with
offices for the insurance of goods at the termini and at Lime-
stone-afterwards Maysville.-Kentucky Gazette, Sept. 10, 1793.
  Col. R T. Durrett, of this city, has shown me the original
advertisement of this line, signed by Jacob Myers, who estab-
lished it. He informs the public that "the subscriber is now
erecting armed sailing and rowing boats to go up and down
the Ohio river from Pittsburg to Limestone." Previously,
passengers were compelled to buy the boats in which they
traveled, and letters were, for the first time, sent by this line
rather than by special messengers.
  The route through the wilderness, which was toilsome and
barely practicable to the immigrant, was altogether unsuited
to the kind of traffic the newly-settled territory could afford;
and, even had these difficulties not existed, it would have been
carrying " coals to Newcastle " to take tobacco for sale to
Virginia, or corn and hogs to Pennsylvania. There were no
neighboring peoples-in the first twenty-five years after the
settlement of Kentucky-with whom they could buy, sell or
exchange. The States north of the Ohio-with the exception
of a few settlements in the eastern part of what was subse-
quently the State of Ohio, and at Cincinnati-were for more
than half that period in the undisputed possession of the In-
dians.
  Tennessee was settled later and more slowly than Kentucky.
Alabama and Mississippi were virtually unsettled until as late
as 1805-6, and immigration to those territories was not large
until after the close of the Creek war in 1814.

 

15



  The only direction, from 1790-when, it may be said, they
were first in condition to seek it-until, perhaps, 1810, in which
the people of Kentucky could hope to find a satisfactory mar-
ket and outlet for aught they produced, was down the Missis-
sippi; and the mouth of that river was for years closed to them,
because in possession of the greedy and bigoted Spaniard, who
would permit commerce with none but himself, and whose sole
idea of the value of commerce was that it might be loaded with
imposts and. exactions. It should not be a matter of wonder
that, curbed and harassed for years by such an obstacle, the
people of Kentucky became impatient to the verge of revolt;
and that the ambition of Burr found aid and comfort from men
like Wilkinson, angered that resources, they were astute to dis-
cern and eager to develop, should be so hindered and retarded.
By the treaty with Spain of 1799, the right to navigate the
Mississippi and deposit at New Orleans, was guaranteed the
citizens of the United States; but the treaty was violated in
1802 by the Spaniards, and the discontent of the Kentuckians
became more bitter than ever. In response to the general and
determined sentiment regarding the free navigation of the river,
Mr. Jefferson resolved to purchase Louisiana, and so end the
trouble. Fortunately, at the date of this determination, Spain
had ceded Louisiana to France, and the question came under
the consideration of Napoleon.  That sagacious prince pre-
ferred that a friendly power should acquire territory he might
have been unable to defend against an implacable and energetic
enemy so strong on the seas as was Great Britain, and the pur-
chase was concluded without difficulty. Immediately upon the
acquisition of Louisiana in 1803, a very considerable trade
sprang up between Kentucky and New Orleans, increasing and
extending to other points upon the Mississippi, as the country
along its banks became settled, and gradually pushing into the
interior and up the tributaries of the great stream.  It was
conducted by means of flat-boats and keel-boats. Laden with
pork, flour, corn, tobacco, apples, and potatoes, and quite fre-
quently coops of poultry, these boats would descend the Ohio
into the Mississippi, generally stopping to trade wherever cus-
Atom was offered, but sometimes, especially when the cargo was
entirely of tobacco or flour, making no stop short of New

 

16



Orleans. Reaching that city, the flats would be broken up,
while the keel-boats, laden with return cargoes, would be poled
and cordelled back again, and up stream, to the point of de-
parture. The entire year was sometimes consumed in making
the round trip. This tedious method of transportation was
followed by the steamboat-serving the same commerce but
vastly enlarging it.
  In October, 1811, the era of steam was inaugurated on the
western waters, and its great impulse given commerce. At
that date Fulton's steamboat, the New Orleans, left Pittsburg
for the port whose name she bore. She was intended to run
between New Orleans and Natchez. But in the next year,
boats were built to serve the trade of the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers from Pittsburg to New Orleans; and in the period
between 1812 and 1819, some forty steamboats were plying
between the Crescent City, Louisville and the intermediate
points. These steamers ranged in capacity from 26 to 700 tons
burden. Capt. H. M. Shreve, of Louisville, was, perhaps, the
most prominent and successful of these pioneer steamboatmen.
  He contested Fulton's patent, and his claim to the exclusive
steam navigation of all of the waters of the United States. In
March, 1817, he demonstrated, what even until that date had
been doubted, that steam was not only the most efficient motor,
but destined to supersede all others, by making the voyage with
the " Washington" from Louisville to New Orleans and back in
forty-live days. The tonnage of the Washington was 400.
The steamboats carried the same character of freight, chiefly,
which had been previously transported. The most important
additional articles, for some years at least, were hemp and
beef; the latter transported both dressed and upon the hoof.
Very few beef cattle, in comparison with other live stock, were
driven to the South from Kentucky; but, as the capacity of
the boats was enlarged, it was quite common for a steamer to
carry fifty or sixty fat beeves on her lower deck; and in cool
weather, carcasses of cattle, slaughtered at Louisville or other
points, were frequently hung up between decks, and sold at the
villages and landing places of the lower Mississippi. Ken-
tucky's trade with the East was, for many years, confined to
the receipt of consignments of merchandise thence, making no

 

17



shipments of consequence in return. The merchandise so
obtainef were dry goods, shoes and similar articles. These
goods came from Philadelphia by canal to Pittsburg, and from
Baltimore by wagons to Wheeling.     From  Pittsburg and
Wheeling the freights were brought down the Ohio to Mays-
ville, Covington and Louisville, and from these points distrib-
uted by the dirt roads, and afterwards by the turnpikes. For
many years the greater part of this merchandise was hauled
from Maysville to Lexington, and redistributed from the latter
point to all parts of Eastern and Central Kentucky. It was
hauled in immense canvas-covered vehicles known as " road
wagons,' which pursued their tedious way in long caravans,
and were driven by a class of men almost as peculiar, and
perhaps as rough, as the keel boatmen of the rivers. The Ken-
tucky merchants bought little in those days from New York,
and until as late as 1856 or '57 practically all shipments from
Kentucky to New York were made via New Orleans. Inland
travel, no matter how great the distances, was, until 1812, almost
entirely done on horseback. But not until the commencement
of turnpike construction, in 1830, were wheeled vehicles in gen-
eral use, and the stage coach largely introduced and patronized.
  About 1810, or it may be a little before that date, Ken-
tucky began to find opportunities and avenues of trade with
her neighbors nearer than New Orleans. Her