Clark County, Indiana - Chapter 31: The River, 1909

Chapter 31: The River

The frontage of Clark cnunt}- upon the river, and the intimate relations between the people of the river towns and the commerce of that great natural highway, have brought boat building up to a high position in the business life of the county.

Jeffersonville, from her location at the head of the Falls, and from the fact that she possesses the best and deepest harbor between Pittsburg and New Orleans, has been a place for water craft construction from veiy early times. The history of her boat-building plants and her output of water craft, beginning with the launching of the steamer United States here in 1819, would be incomplete without a description of the forerunners (if our present floating palaces, the keel-ljoat and tlie flat-boat. To this subject may naturally be added that of Falls piloting for Falls piloting was peculiarly a Jeffersonville business, and Jeffersonville the home and headquarters of falls pilots.

In the latter part of the seventeenth, and the early part of the eighteenth centuries, the Falls of the Ohio, and the region around about, was a center of attraction ; alluring to explorers, travelers, traders and emigrants ; including agents for capitalists, surveyors, engineers and scientists. These visitors left copious notes of their obser\'ations, and some vivid predictions respecting the future growth and prosperity of the settlements. The predictions then made are now fully verified in the present numerous population, great wealth and prosperity of the three Falls Cities. For had it not been for the Falls there would now be no Louisville, no Jeffersonville, no New Albany.

As early as June, 1765, a Colonel Crogan, who was in the employ of an English Indian agent, came down the river in small boats, called batteaux, to the head of the Falls, where the boats were lightened and passed over. These batteaux were small row-boats, and the navigators of them were sometimes called batteau-men. Later on boats on the river were called keel-boats. Gen. George Rodgers Clark in his memoirs mentions loading stores and ammunition, and embarking one hundred and fifty volunteers at Pittsburg, and coming down the river to the head of the Falls, where his command encamped on an island near the Kentucky shore, and that they left the island on June

24, 1778, and ran about a mile up the river in order to gain the main channel and slioot the Falls. The boats mentioned by him must have been keel-boats, modeled for rowing against the current, or they could not have run up a mile to gain the main channel.

In Dillon's History of Indiana is a mention that in the summer of 1786 provisions and stores were loaded in keel-boats at Louisville and Clarksville for the army at Post Vincennes. Obviously these keel-boats were partly loaded above the Falls, and stores which had been taken by the portage route on the Indiana side to Clarksville were added to the cargo there, after passage of the Falls.

For many years after these events, keel-boating was the only mode for taking cargoes down the river. They were built with a keel, sharp bow and stern, modeled somewhat like a canal-boat, but lighter. They floated dmvn with the current to destination, and were cordelled liack. Getting back was the laborious part of the trip. In cordelling a part of the crew w-ould walk up the shore, pulling the boat up stream with a long line attached to its bow, while others of the crew on the boat wotdd help over obstacles and keep it ofif shore with long poles. In this way keel-boats were brought back from New Orleans to the Falls and points above: consuming sometimes the better part of the year to make the round trip.

Mr. James Flint, a Scotchman, was here in 1819. On Alay 19th of that ^-ear he wrote as follows : "The steamboat. Western Engineer, and a numljer of keel-boats descended the Falls today." So it is in evidence that keel-boats were still numerous on the river at that date. And he ought to be good authority for he appears to have been a close obser-.'er. He also wrote that there "were si.xty-five houses, thirteen stores and two taverns in the town, and a steamboat on the stocks, measuring one hundred and eighty feet long, forty feet broad, estimated to carry seven hundred tons."

Living in Jeffersonville during the era of keel-boating was a roving, tumultuous character, named Marble Stone, or Rolling Rock, as he called himself when in his cups, ^^'hen relating his river experiences in his sober hours, he always claimed that he had made thirteen trips on keel-boats to New Orleans and walked back, sometimes helping to cordelle the boats, and sometimes taking the shortest trail homewards. On one of these trips, the boat arrived at New Orleans soon after the battle had Ijeen fought and won bv fieneral Jackson, but in time for the crew to participate in the prevailing enthusiasm, and gather incidents of the fighting. While footing it home by a trail leading through Nashville, the party made up a song, replete with humor, laudatory to General Jackson and the Americans, and belittling to Lord Packingham and the P)ritish. On arriving at Nashville Stone tank-ed up to a hilarious condition, celebrating the occasion of his arrival b}- singing the song on the streets, and attracting unusual attention. As Tennessee was largely represented in that battle, the song naturally created much enthusiasm as well as amusement. The Legislature being then in session. Stone was brought to an informal meeting of the members, the sole object being to hear the song repeated. Stone's version of his reception was that he captured the whole crowd tooth and toe-nail, and was feasted and treated and sent home to his wife Polly in a stage coach. And he ever afterward asserted that he was the only keel-lioatman ever entertained by a state Legislature.

As time rolled on Indians disappeared from the shores, or became friendly. Traffic on the river increased, flatboats, sometimes called broadhorns, succeeded keel-boats, because they were more economical. They were built for the down trip only, and in such a manner that they might be taken apart and sold with the cargo. The flatljoat was a square bowed, square sterned box, like a scow, from twenty to eighty feet long. In its construction large timl>ers were used for gunwales, one for each side, curved upwards on the ends, and fastened together with strong cross timbers. The bottom was made by fastening heavy planks across from gunwale to gunwale, and tightly caulking the seams to prevent leaking. On this solid part of the boat or hull, a light freight house was built, in which to store the cargo. Upon the roof the oars were hung on iron oar pins, ready for use in landing, avoiding sandbars or the banks in short bends. In these flatboats the hay, grain, potatoes, salt pork and the like, produced in the upper country, so called, were floated to New Orleans, or peddled along the coast of the lower Mississippi river. Coal and salt boats were built in like manner, but with heavier timbers, and without housing or roofing. The early day coalboats were from eighty to one hundred feet long, twenty feet wide and eight feet deep inside, with perpendicular sides and ends, drawing when loaded about si.x feet of water. They floated in pairs, lashed together and were kept in the channel with ten oars, three on each side called sweeps, two on the stem ends, one on each boat, called steering oars, two on the bows called gougers. These double boats required a crew of eighteen men, which was increased to twenty-one in passing the Falls. Single boats in passing the Falls required thirteen hands including the pilot and assistants. Later on coal boats were enlarged to one hundred and eighty feet long, twenty-four to twenty-six feet wide and ten feet deep, drawing when loaded eight feet of water, leaving only two feet above water all around. They held twenty-five thousand or more bushels of bituminous coal, of nearly nine hundred tons weig'ht. Consequently they were unwieldy and difficult to handle. During high stages of water they were taken safely over the Falls in pairs, but on scant coal-boat water were taken singly. But coal fleets generally came down the river on the crest of high water and such as were destined for markets below were rushed over with the least possible delay. One pilot, H. S. Barnaby, is reputed to have taken over twelve pairs in one day, earning fees amounting- to one hundred and twenty dollars. This record, however, was made at a favorable time in June, 1855. There was plenty of water, but falling fast. A large fleet of all kinds of flat bottom boats was passing, and so anxious were boat owners to get over while the Falls water lasted that they crowded into the channel, following the leaders so closely that, at times, it looked to observers, like inviting destruction, but good luck was with them and the day passed without accident. A gentleman now living here drove Mr. Barnaby's buggy to Clarksville to meet him, from daylight until dark that day. He says that Mr. Barnaby would jump into the buggy at Clarksville, take the whip and lines and drive back at a furious pace to catch another pair of boats opp<5site the town, making the round trip in less than an hour. At this rate his day's work netted him ten dollars an hour.

The number of boats of all kinds going over the Falls, and the necessity of capable men piloting them gave the business a more than ordinary importance. River talk in those days was on every tongue. The interesting topics discussed were prospective rises, falls, water, character and efficiency of pilots, the treacherous currents and eddies, obstructions in the Falls, like Ruble rock, Aleck rock, \\'ave rock. Willow Point rock and Old Enoch. Ruble rock was considered the most dangerous : it was dreaded by owners, pilots and crew at certain stag'es of water. It lay under the surface, almost in the middle of the channel, a little below where the Louisville Railroad bridge now crosses to Fourteenth street. It could not be located accurately when the river was low by the waves and eddies caused by the resistance to the current. A generally credited report says that a Mr. Ruble was the owner of the first boat wrecked by striking it, hence the name of Ruble rock. It is also said that the names Aleck and Enoch rocks were attained for like causes. Aleck rock lay some five hundred feet below Ruble, on the left of the channel, projecting out into the chute, but not dangerous in low water as the channel then receded from it. Wave rock, about half a mile below, reached out some five hundred feet from the backbone side, causing the channel to turn sharply to the right, and creating the upper part of the Whirlpool bend. Willow Point rock, just below Wave rock, reached out from the Indiana side, about one hundred yards beyond the point of Wave rock, causing the channel to turn again sharply to the left, thus completing the Whirlpool bend. Some distance below this Enoch rock lay on the left of the channel. All of these then dangerous rocks have been removed under the supervision of the United States engineers.

In order to understand just how a flatboat passed through the Falls, you should imagine yourself in a position to follow one over with the eye. The boat is turned out into the channel from the harbor above, pilot, steersman, and oarsmen are aboard, the pilot assumes command and stations himself on deck in full view of the steersman and crew, and facing the head of the chute ; from there he indicates to the steersman the cotu'se to liokl the boat with his rig'ht and left hands. The propeUing oars are stoutly manned and vigorously plied to give the boat steering momentum. As she approaches the head of the chute she is held for the deepest water, which is m the left of the channel. She enters the chute speeding along with a ten or thirteen mile current, and, bearing a little to the left, with lively help of the oars, safely passes the dangerous Ruble rock, then bearing a little to the rig'ht she avoids Aleck rock, then a little to the left again to avoid the Little Eddy, she glides swiftly down \\'hirlpool point, where the current turns sharply to the right and carries her on past the point of Wave rock into the \Miirlpool bend, where with active help she swings around the point and heads toward the Kentucky shore, now bearing up to the left to keep off Willow Point rocks which reached out from the Indiana side, she rushes past these and swings sharply around to the right again and is carried down into the Big Eddy, and into serene waters nearly opposite to old Clarksville, where the Falls crew leave her after a successful run of nearly a mile and a half.

Long before keel-boating had been relegated to the limbo of the past steamboats had become common. The earliest steam-boats came from Pittsburg. The first steamboat to navigate the Ohio was one named the "New Orleans" and upon her first trip down the river she passed by Utica, between nine and ten o'clock at night, in October. 1811, creating much alarm. After she had passed, the reality appeared more like a dream. On her arrival off. Louisville, about 12 o'clock, the boat in letting off steam brought many people from their beds to witness the novel sight. The general impression was that a comet had fallen from the heavens into the Ohio. This boat made two trips between Louisville and Pittsburg, and then went south to stay. The New Orleans was built by Robert Fulton and Robert Livingstone, at Pittsburg. She had low pressure engines and was a little over three hundred tons. The next steamboat to pass down the river was the Comet. She was a stem-wheel boat of forty-five tons, built at Pittsburg by Daniel French. She was equipped with his patent vibrating cylinder and was considered a wonder. She made the voyage to Louisville in the summer of 18 13 and to New Orleans in the spring of 1814. After this she made two voyages to Natchez, and was then sold.

The third steamboat to pass down the river was named the "Vesuvius." She was a boat of about three hundred and ninety tons and was built at Pittsburg. She passed down the river in 1814, bound for New Orleans. The fourth steamboat was the Enterprise, a boat of forty-five tons, built at Bridgeport, on the Monongahela river by Daniel French. - She made tw^o voyages to the Falls of the Ohio in the summer of 1814. On May 6, 181 5, she left Pittsburg and reached Shippingsport May 30th (the same year), making the unprecedented time of twenty-five days. She was the first steamboat to come from New Orleans to tlie Falls of the Ohio. The fifth steamboat to visit our shores was the Aetna, three hundred and sixty tons, one hundred and fiftythree and one-half feet long, twenty-eight feet beam and 9 feet hokl. She was built at Pittsburg by Fulton and Livingstone and came down the river in 1 81 5. The sixth steamboat was the Dispatch, twenty-five tons; the seventh was the Buffalo, three hundred tons ; the eighth was the James Alonroe, ninety tons; the ninth was the Washington, four hundred tons. The W'ashington was the first boat to have her boilers on the main deck instead of in the hold.

The success of these boats and the advantages of Jeffersonville as a boatbuilding location led to the establishment of a yard here as early as 1819. The first steamboat built here was the United States, and she was launched this same year. She was owned by a ilr. Hart and others and was reported as being undoubtedly the "finest merchant steamboat in the universe." She had two separate engines which were built in England and drew but little water but was capable of carn-ing three thousand bales of cotton. She was one hundred and eighty feet long, forty foot beam and of seven hundred tons. In this same year another yard was established in Clarksville, and four boats were building there boats of from sixty to two hundred tons. ^Ipst of the timber for these craft was cut from the banks of upper Silver Creek and floated down by freshets.

As all steamboats burned wood in those days the establishment and maintenance of wood yards along the river was a necessity and. until the adoption of coal as a fuel the wood business was a large and important industry.

One of the early boat-builders of Clark county was Barzillai A\'illey, who lived near Silver Creek near Memphis. He was one of the earliest settlers there and was a great mill builder. He built a sixty-foot boat on his farm in 1813 or 1814 and floated her to the river on a freshet where he sold her. In 1824 he furnished a great deal of whip-sawed lumber to build a boat then on the stocks near the mouth of Silver creek. This boat was being constructed by a genius who conceived the idea that he could propel her by means of laying a steam pipe over her stern and allowing the steam to escape through it into the water. The three French brothers, William, George and Henry, engaged in boat building in Jeffersonville in 1829, and turned out several ver>' fine boats, among which were the Diana, a side-wheeler, the Edward Shippen, a side-wheeler, the Louisiana and several others. Their yard was below the present Howard plant. The French plant was in existence for a number of years, and these boat builders ranked veiy high in steamboat construction. William was the genius ©f the family.

In 183 1 or 1832 Robert C. Green had a small yard at the upper end of the citv, where he made a few boats, but did not continue the business long. Green started a foundry where the glass works were in the eighties, and paid more attention to making engines and machinery than to boat building.

Baird S History Of Clark Co., Ind

The methods of work in those days were in great contrast to tlie methods now. Where a great deal of the timber used in the construction of steamboats is transported by rail from a distance at present, all that used in the early days of steamboat building was rafted down the Ohio. For many years Alex Hanley and his sons furnished rafted timber to the How'ard yards, and it is a matter of interest to know that the timber received from the earliest days to the present time has all come from the same iocalit\- - the Big Sandy, the Guyandotte rivers, and Twelve Pole creek. The logs were taken from the river and sawed into lumber by the most primitive methods. Whipsaw'ing, as it was called, consisted of cutting the timber b}- hand power, using a long saw with a double handle on each end. The log was rolled mer a pit where one man below^ and one above drew the saw up and down until it was reduced to timber of the dimensions needed.

Henry French and Peter Myers engaged in the lioat building business in 1847, and turned out considerable good w^ork in the live years they were associated. Air. French attended to the ship-yard while Afr. Alyers had charge of the saw-mill. The business was finally divided, Air. Alyers retaining the saw-mill, which he rented to French, Stratton and Logan, and some years later it burned. Logan, wdio was connected with the saw-mill, died and Stratton sold it to David S. Barmore in 1S64. The French yard turned out about twenty boats, but a complete list of names (ir dimensions is impossible to secure. Previous to the purchase of the lower boat plant by Barmore, Samuel King had come into control, but he retained it less thnn two years.

As the construction of water craft in Jeffersonville continued and increased the importance of falls piloting likewise grew. To a person standing on the river bank any balmy day in the fifties, when the river was up to full boating stage, the scene was intensely interesting. More tlian two miles of the channel was in plain view, produce boats, high hay boats, low salt boats, and family scows, following each other in a long line leading into the Indiana chute. On every boat was alertness and activitv, along the shore pilots, steersmen and hands were hustling for trips, skiffs with crews were plying between the line of boats and the shore, horses with boy riders and light wagons were hiu'rying to and from the landings to bring pilots and crews back for other trips. These activities, together with the eager crowds of onlookers, completed a panorama-like picture not soon to be forgotten by the eye witness.

At such times when the river was full of boats, and all the pilots were busy, a few restless owners would turn out into the channel and follow boats known to be in charge of licensed pilots. It is probable that more would have done so, had their inclination to take the chance nnt been held in check by a clause in the cargo insurance policy, which required the presence of a licensed pilot on board. For some years the Jeffersonville Insurance Company issued policies for Falls risks. James Keigwin, Althanasius Wathen and

Other prominent citizens of the town, were the officers and owners of the stock. Its business office was in the building now occupied as the office of the superintendent of the Ferr}' Company, on Front street.

Dangerous as the Falls were considered to be, few hves were lost by accidents to descending flatboats, only one is now recalled. In 1837 Leonard Bowman, while steering- for pilot William Bowman. \Aas thrown overboard and drowned. He was standing by the steering oar, the blade of which was caught in an eddy or strong undercurrent. He was a highly respected young man, and it is said that his was the largest attended funeral seen in the town up to that time.

A much-talked-of incident occurred some years later. A coal-boat in going over the Falls, struck Ruble rock and tore a hole in the bottom from bow to stern, letting the coal out and the water in. Cyrus \\^right was steering. When he saw the coal disappearing, he realized that the boat could not float many minutes, so he unshipped his oar to have something to float on. After the boat disappeared he found only himself and Isaac Gaither on the oar. Mr. Gaither was a very pious man, a loud and stirring exhorter at Methodist revivals, and a tirm believer in the efficacy of prayer. He at once threw up his hands and began to call loudly on the Lord to save them. Mr. Wright was a very different character, he was a resolute man of action, and evidently thought that safety lay in their own exertions, and at once commenced paddling vigorously with both hands. On discovering that his companion was making no effort e.xcept to make his prayer heard above the roar of the Falls he became enraged and shouted to him to paddle. "Paddle, Gaither, paddle, damn you, paddle and pray afterwards." ^^'hen Gaither's fright somewhat subsided and the true situation dawned on him, he did paddle as vigorously as he had prayed, and the oar was run safely to shore. People who were intimately acquainted with Mr. Wright credited him with language much more forcible than that here attributed to him. The others of the crew clung to floating planks and oars, and were rescued by fishermen who put out from the shore in skiffs. It was a very cold day in winter and their clothes froze on them soon after reaching the shore, and some of the weaker ones, being exhausted, were about to succumb to the cold, but Mr. Wright again arose to the occasion, and by vigorous swearing at them and pounding them in the back, kept them going, and they all reached town. His service as collector on the ferry boats for many years made him widely acquainted, and his free and unlimited use of adjectives on all occasions was alarming to the pious.

It is obvious that the law making powers were at an early date called upon to regulate falls navigation by statute. The first act was passed by the Kentucky Legislature in 1707. The next act found on record is the territorial law adopted by the Governor and two judges of the territory of Indiana. September 24, 1803.

Davis Floyd and John Owens, citizens of Clarksville, were appointed falls pilots December 14, 1803. nearly three months after Ihe adoption of that law. Charles and Reuben Sleade, brothers, were appointed at a later date - they were known to be falls pilots in 18 10.

The first state law was enacted by the General Assembly and approved February 7. 1825. By this act the number of pilots authorized was increased to four, who were required to each execute a bond in the sum of five thousand dollars. The pilotage fees were fixed at three dollars for a flatboat. except for family boats under thirty feet in length, for which two dollars should be charged. It provided for a fine of ten dollars for lefusal by an authorized pilot to take a boat over on tender to'him of the lawful fee. and a fine of twenty dollars for taking a boat over by an unauthorized person, except he be the owner. The pilots commissioned under this law. so far as ascertained, were Charles Sleade. Andrew Fite. Alexander \^'elch and John ^\'eathers.

Later on another general law concerning falls piloting was passed - see revised statutes 1843. By this act the number of pilots authorized was increased to six. The fees were slightly changed, the same character of bond was required, the same forfeitures and penalties for violation of the law were re-enacted: also an additional clause that provided for forfeiture or license for wilfull neglect of duty, or removal from the vicinity of the Falls, and for demanding a greater fee than that fixed by law.

\\'illiam Bowman, Charles Sleade. William Patrick. John Morgan. Thomas Powell, Samuel Cash, Angel Gill and Moody Dustin are remembered as Falls pilots acting under that law.

Another general law on the subject passed the General Assembly on June 15, 1852. By this act the Governor was authorized to appoint eight falls pilots for terms of four years each, and it provided that the fees for pilotage should be fixed by the Board of Clark County Commissioners.

The conditions are now so changed that any state law concerning falls piloting is absolutely useless. No more flatboats are passed over the Falls by pilots licensed by the state. Powerful towboats, owned by capitalized combinations, now handle all the coal boats and barges and other heavy products, over the Falls or through the canal, guided by the towboats' pilots, who obtain license from inspectors who are authorized to issue in accordance with laws of Congress. And the produce that in times past floated to Southern markets has been diverted from the river to the railroads, or is carried by steamboats. The old Falls pilots were a sturdy lot of men, and their occupation was one that called for a high class of efficiency, and the value of the cargoes and lives entrusted to their care bespeaks for them a reputation in their wurk the peer of any.

The Howard Ship Yards

The history of steamboat construction in Clark county is to a great extent the Iiistory of the Howard yards. James Howard, the founder of this great industry, was born near Manchester, England, September i. 1814, and emigrated with his father, mother and brother. Daniel, to the New World, in 1819, landing in Brooklyn. In 1820 the family tra\eled overland to W'heding, West Virginia, where they embarked on a flatboat for the city of Cincinnati, arriving there late that year. James worked for his father in wool-carding and cloth-dressing until he was fifteen years old. and then for a short time in the ship-yard of William Gordon. He was afterward apprenticed to \\illiam Hartshorn, a steamboat builder, to learn the trade of ship carpenter, and applied himself with such assiduity to his work that he was able to draft a boat when he was only nineteen vears of age. After spending four vears with his master he came to Louisville and succeeded in getting a contract to build a boat. Jeffersonville offering- the most available location to meet his needs he established his yard on a small tract of land at the foot of Mechanic street. Here he laid the keel for his first boat and she was finished in 1S34. She was named the "Hyperion," and was built to run on the Chattahoochee river in Alabama. She was a side-wheeler, one hundred and seven feet long, eighteen feet beam and eight feet hold, Captain Leonard. At that time and in fact for many years afterwards, the hull was the only part built by the contractor, the upper work and engines being separate contracts. During the years 1834 and 1835 he built two more boats - the "Black Locust." a centerwheel ferry Ixiat, for the Jeffersonville & Louisville Ferry Company, and the "Tecumseh." a side-wheel boat one hundred and fifteen feet long, sixteen feet beam and five feet hold for the Arkansas river trade. Tn 1836 he moved his plant to Madison, where he built sixteen boats, but he discontinued the busi-

Baird S History Of Clark Co., Ixd

Montezuma - a side-wheel steamboat, one hundred and fifty feet long, twenty-eight feet beam and six and one-half feet hold, and nine others whose names are lost.

In 1846 he established a yard at Shippingsport, but met with such loss in the great flood of 1847 that he moved his plant to the upper end of Louisville. While at Shippingsport he built six boats as follows :

His yard in the upper end of Louisville was about opposite Spring street, in Jeffersonville, and has held in partnership with John Enos. Enos died within four or five months and James Howard returned to Jeffersonville, the scene of his first venture and success, sixteen years previously. Daniel, his brother, had become interested with him at this time, and was left on the "Point" to finish such boats as were on the stocks, and saw up such timber as might remain, while James took charge of the new work being started in Jeffersonville. The work on the "Point," all told, consisted of seven or eight boats for southern rivers and wdien they were completed the yards there were discontinued.

The location of his new yard in Jeffersonville is still the scene of active and progressive boat building, and with the exception of about two years at the beginning of the War of the Rebellion, has added its yearly quota of craft to the great rivers of the \Vest. In 1848. his first year at his new location, he built five boats as follows :

During this year the last of the boats contracted for under the old partnership with John Enos were finished, those marked "L." in the above list having been constructed in Louisville. In i8qi the following boats were built :

The Kate Howard was built for Captain Moses Hilliard for the Mississippi river trade, and was named after the youngest daughter of her designer and builder, James Howard.

Baird S Histokv Of Clark Co., Ind

This wharf boat is still used in 1909 as a landing place for the Cincinnati and LouisN'ille packet boats at the foot of Fourth avenue in Louisville.

In 1865 James Howard took into the firm with him his younger brother, John C. Howard, and his son, Edmund J., as partners, the firm becoming James Howard & Co. This year there were built :

Bairds History Of Clark Co., Ind

The James Howard was a side-wheel steamboat, three hundred eighteen feet in length with fifty-four feet beam and ten feet hold. This magnificent creation was one of the wonders of her day. She was the largest inland steamboat ever built up to or since her time. The steamer James Howard was a boat of three thousand four hundred tons. To the un-'nitiated in the mysteries of tonnage these figures may mean but little. l>ut when we learn that the Cit}- of Louisville and the City of Cincinnati, the present mail boats between Louisville and Cincinnati, are less than one tlmusand tons, the size of the James Howard may be better understood. She was launched on October 8. 1870, and when finished ran in the New Orleans and St. Louis trade. The total cost of this boat and her equipment was one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. The launching of the James Howard was viewed by thousands of spectators, all drawn to the yards to witness the plunge of this leviathan into the bosom of the Ohio.

The contrast between this vessel and those of earlier times, which were in every particular frail and inferior boats, was like that which exists between the ocean greyhounds of today and the ships of forty or fifty years ago. The genius of a McKay, a Steers, a Cramp and a Webb invoked the change which is seen on the ocean ; and the talents of a Howard have worked a like transfonnation on our mighty inland rivers. If by the first our foreign commerce has been enlarged and enriched, so by the second our domestic commercial interchanges have been promoted and made of increased value. The steamer, James Howard, still stands as the highest type of steam boat construction, and it was fitting that she should bear the name of the master-builder of western waters. During this year the following additional boats were built :

On October 14. 1876, James Howard was drowned by his buggy backing off of the ferry boat. The ship yards were continued by his son and brother until 1888, when John C. Howard retired, leaving E. J. Howard in control of the industry'. The yards have continued to add their yearly quota of water craft to the great rivers of the West. Several contracts have been completed for boats in Central and South America, and the first large steam boats upon the Yukon river in Alaska were constructed at Howard's, knocked down and shipped to Dutch Harbor, where they were built and launched for the trade up that great river.

This record of steamboat building is not equalled by any plant on the western rivers of the continent. The Howard boats, both as to construction and finish, have made the yards at Jeffersonville the peer of any inland plant in the world, and the reputation of the Howard boats for beauty, design and general satisfaction is known from Pittsburg to Xew Orleans and on tributary rivers. The impetus, which the personality and technical skill of James Howard gave the business, and which John C. and Daniel so thoroughly maintained, is still felt. Ed. J. Howard, the present head of the concern, is one of the best ecpipped and most thoroughly competent steamboat builders of the day. He is now^ president of the company, which includes shipyards or marine ways at Cincinnati, Madison, JetYersonville, Mound City and Paducah. Clyde Howard is the secretary and treasurer of the company and James Howard the vice-president. James Armstrong, a nephew of Capt. E. J. Howard, is in charge of the books of the concern. The prospects of a 9-foot stage of water will, no doubt, give an impetus to boat building at all points along the river, and the Howard yards will be given many opportunities to furnish water craft to meet the new and larger demands upon the traffic which will result. The ultimate control of the river, and possibly its sources of supply, will !iot only have the effect of affording a steady boating stage, but will tend t(_i a reduction of the dangers of the great floods which in the past have attained the following stages :

Beside the Howard yards in Jeffersonville, the Barmore yard, owned by David S. Barmore, turned out a number of verv fine boats from 1869 until 1885.

bought Stuart's interest, and continued the business alone until 1S85, when his plant was destroyed by fire. He had a considerable yard and turned out many fine boats. During the war he built a number of boats for the Government. When first in business alone he built four boats, the Coosa Belle, Julia, Swan and Jesse K. Bell. Since that time he built the following steamers, some being side-wheel, stern and others center-wheel boats:

The value of the great water highway which passes Clark county is not fully appreciated by the larger part of those who live here. One of the noblest streams in the world, or as ]\IcMurtrie describes it in his History of Louisville, "By far the noblest river in the universe," it presents to the eye an everchanging panorama of beauty. The north side of the river in Clark county is as diversified as it is beautiful From the lower end of the Illinois grant ojjposite the Falls where cluster the historic memories of George Rogers Clark, the banks are high and the land beyond le\-el : offering an uninterrupted \-iew nf the country beyon<i and the knobs in the far distance. The blufTs and hills of L^tica and the tableland opposite. Twelve Mile island, remind one of some scenes along the Columbia, while the precipitous clifi^s and rugged hills in the vicinity of Fourteen Mile creek present a scene of grandeur not excelled on the Hudson. But the practical utility of the stream is its most interesting feature.

From the Falls of the Ohio to Madison, fifty miles above, the harbor is of inestimable value to the surrounding territory. With an ample depth of water at all seasons of the year it affords a harbor capable of floating the assembled water craft of the whole IMississippi valley. Along the Indiana side of the river is found the deepest water and the best harbor. Immediately below Six Mile Island is the famous Pumpkin Patch harbor for coal boats, while from the town of Port Fulton to Four Mile Springs the vast coal fleets find safe anchorage, and millions of bushels of coal are kept here in reserve. Along the front of Jefifersonville a depth of water sufficient for the launching or landing of the largest Mississippi steamers is found, a deeper and safer natural harbor than is found along the Kentucky side. The Falls, however, have ever been the great obstacle to navigation, and from early times have been one of the problems which has called for the deepest study and the expenditure of vast sums of money for its solution.

In 1820 Congress made an appropriation for a survey of the Ohio river from Louisville to the Mississippi river and down that river to its mouth. This sur\-ey was made in 1821 by Captains Young and Poussin, of the topographical engineers, and Lieutenant Tuttle of the engineers. In 1824 an appropriaation of $75,000 was made for the improvement of certain sand bars in the Ohio and for the removal of snags from the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

The plans for the improvement of the Falls of the Ohio include straightening and deepening the channel, and cuntrolling the water flow in the Indiana chute.

This is the main channel of the river Ijy which commerce passes over the Falls when the stage of water is such as to permit navigation via that route. Originally it was very crooked, with swift currents and whirls, filled with dangerous rocky points projecting from the sides and bottom, and it could be navigated only at stages of eleven feet or more, upper canal gauge.

The Federal Government has undertaken a plan which requires the expenditure of over $1,760,000 for improving the Indiana chute, the Louisville canal and the harbor above.

The Falls of the Ohio are formed by a mass of limestone rock extending across the river bed creating a fall of twenty-seven feet in two and one-half miles of the river.

The types used are commonly known as the Boule and Chanoine dams. The Boule dam consists of an iron framework on levers, which are attached to a concrete base on the bed of the river. This framework is raised into a vertical position by steamboats built especially for this purpose. Owing to the fact tliat the water above the dam will flow freely through the framework the power required to raise them will not be of great volume. When in position the framework is filled in with wooden wickets or doors which, when in position, form a solid wall and hold back the water.

The Chanoine dam is somewhat similar but instead of presenting a vertical front to the water slants down stream. It consists of a series of heavy wooden wickets or doors, which are raised separately by steam power furnished by the type of boat referred to alxive. These wickets are attached to a concrete base fixed to the solid rock of the river bed and are raised by means of levers. When the stage of the river becomes sufficiently high so that the dam is no longer needed, the wickets are tripped by an ingenious arrangement and automatically fall back into place, affording a free passage way.

The appropriation made by Congress is being used in the construction of 500 feet of Boule dam in Middle Chute. 648 feet of Chanoine dam in Indiana Chute, and about 600 linear feet of concrete dam between Indiana Chute and the north bank of the river. These sections of dam constitute additions to the former projects, and are to have their crests at elevation -{-9 feet, upper canal gauge (412.004 feet above sea level). This height is such as will afford a minimum depth of 9 feet upstream to Madison. Ind., and a minimum depth of six feet on the lower miter sill at Lock No. i, Kentucky river.