Ohio River was leading Cincinnati to greatness

Ohio River was leading Cincinnati to greatness. Business centered at Public Landing, where steamboats came and went, whistles blew, crowds milled, and the wharf towered high with merchandise. At mid-century a local newspaper described the scene: Bells were ringing, mates and draymen were swearing, negroes singing, boxes, barrels and bundles were rolling and tumbling, thirty to forty rousters chased one another up and down the gang plank, and above the monotony of it all, could be heard the words 'down below' as heavy articles of freight were dropped into the hold. Now and then a barrel rolled off the gang plank into the river and was chased by the rousters. All moved like clockwork. From above, a hundred or more passengers gazed upon the scene and exchanged greetings with friends upon the shore, while the pilot surveyed it from his throne upon the 'Texas.' When darkness overtook preparations, blazing jacks were used to light up the freight piles and gang ways, and the scene continued.

This enormous activity was directly traceable to the Ohio River, the great marine highway that twisted and turned for nearly a thousand miles between Pittsburgh and Cairo, Illinois. Cincinnati's epic rise sprang from its situation on the river, and from the changing types of craft that passed over it.

Boats first appeared in numbers on the Ohio during the 1780's, when Americans floated downstream to seek new homes in the West. At that time few roads penetrated the Ohio Valley, and the river offered the only easy approach to the western country. Soon a host of odd craft was all along the Ohio. Some bore people, livestock, and household furnishings to the new settlements; others carried produce to market. These batteaux, pirogues, barges, flatboats, keelboats, and arks were fantastically slow, except in time of high water; and while the Indian troubles lasted they usually were boarded with heavy side timbers having portholes for muskets and small cannon.

Fortnightly passenger service between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati began in October 1793, when Jacob Myers introduced two packets propelled by sails and oars. The packets also carried freight and sometimes convoyed other craft. After two more boats were put in service in January 1794, weekly runs were inaugurated between the two villages. Passengers were boarded and "liquored" by the management, and there was a separate cabin for women.

Since it was too costly to buy goods in Philadelphia and haul them over the mountains in horse-borne pack trains, Cincinnati and the other inland communities sent their exports to New Orleans by boat and received imports in the same way. In a few years a vast commerce rose on the rivers between Pittsburgh and New Orleans, with Cincinnati as a great midway port.

From New Orleans came cotton, tobacco, hemp, lead, powder, saltpeter, sugar, wool, and the fine clothes, furnishings, and luxuries of New York, Philadelphia, and Europe. From Cincinnati went grain, pork, and whisky; then, with the rise of industry, tools, furniture, paper, flour, and other items. Various "trades" developed between Cincinnati and the towns of Louisville, Marietta, Wheeling, and Pittsburgh; and some enterprising Cincinnatians made a good living from navigating floating groceries, sawmills, gristmills, and blacksmith shops to the villages and landings along the Ohio.

Much of this early river traffic was confined to flatboats, barges, and keelboats. Flatboats moved downstream only; they drifted with the current, often traveled at night, and progressed as little as one mile an hour in low water and five miles an hour in high water. Very numerous at first, flatboats were favored by incoming settlers because they carried sizable quantities of livestock, furnishings, and farm equipment, in addition to many passengers. Often two or more flatboats were lashed together before proceeding downstream; besides offering better protection against Indians, this arrangement permitted "visiting," swapping, frolics, and dancing. At Cincinnati and the other river towns, flatboats were loaded with produce and manufactures and sent on the long haul to New Orleans. There the cargoes were marketed and the boats knocked apart and sold for timber; then the crews returned overland from Natchez.

The task of going upstream as well as down was met by barges and keelboats, which depended upon the muscular exertions of the boatmen to buck the current, get through shallows, and cross sandbars and other hindrances. Barges were almost entirely covered by low, stout cabins, from the roofs of which men propelled the craft by means of long, oarlike "sweeps." A number of barges, built locally, traded out of Cincinnati. One of the finest was the Missouri, a 44-oar boat that made the 180-mile journey to Louisville in 22 hours and 24 minutes while carrying 1,600 barrels of flour. Another, the Cincinnati, achieved the shortest time on record when, in 1811, it did the 1,500-mile run from New Orleans to Cincinnati in 78 days. At that date it usually took six months for barges to make the round trip between the two towns; but by 1816 the time had been shaved to permit two round trips during the navigation season.

Until the steamboat arrived, the fastest freight haulers on the western waters were the keelboats. These narrow, light-draft vessels had heavy keels on their bottoms; the keel eased steering and protected the bull against logs, snags, and shoals. Each keelboat had running boards along its sides, from which the keelers plunged long, iron-tipped poles into the river bed, walked aft with their weight against the poles, then ran forward to repeat the performance. In low water--then very common to the Ohio--keelers had to go ashore with long ropes and literally pull their craft until a deeper pool was reached.

About 1805 there were 50 keelboats in trade between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, but by 1815 the total had jumped to 150. Two months were required for the round trip between the two towns, each keelboat attempting to make three complete trips during the navigation season.Cincinnati saw the hell-roaring keelers for several decades and cried "Thank God!" when the steamboat at last drove these hearties farther west. The keelers were the wildest and toughest men on the frontier. Breeched in buckskin or linsey-woolsey, and shirted in flaming red, these big-boned fellows walked with long strides, whooped bellicose taunts at flatters, bargers, and townsmen, and often provoked fights just for the exercise. Following such an outburst of high spirits, these buckoes tapered off by demolishing signs, outbuildings, and furniture and glassware in near-by taverns.

Keelers liked to wench, gamble, drink, dance, sing, spit, and shoot at mark. Mike Fink, most redoubtable of all the keelers, best illustrated their temperament when he set fire to his woman to caution her against infidelity. All keelers liked to fight, and a boatman wearing a red feather in his cap had to meet any challenger. Such contests usually started with a little mutual "blackguarding"--a game in which the keeler tried to silence his opponent with a barrage of picturesque boasts, epithets, and insults.