HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA VOLUME 9 HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA VOLUME 9 Waterways of Westward Expansion THE OHIO RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES BY ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT _With Maps_ [Illustration] THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY CLEVELAND, OHIO 1903 COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE 9 I. OUR FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE OHIO 15 II. THE INDIAN SIDE 48 III. "THE NAVIGATOR" 73 IV. THE EVOLUTION OF RIVER CRAFT 100 V. THREE GENERATIONS OF RIVERMEN 151 VI. THE NAVIGATION OF THE OHIO 189 ILLUSTRATIONS I. BONNÉCAMPS'S MAP OF THE OHIO RIVER; 1749 24 II. CAPTAIN GORDON'S MAP OF THE OHIO; 1766 _facing_ 48 III. RUFUS PUTNAM'S MAP OF THE OHIO RIVER AND SETTLEMENTS; 1804 71 PREFACE In the study of Waterways of Westward Expansion, the Ohio River--the "Gateway of the West"--occupies such a commanding position that it must be considered most important and most typical. Such is its situation in our geography and history that it is entitled to a most prominent place among Historic Highways of America which greatly influenced the early westward extension of the borders and the people of the United States. Not until a late period in the expansion era--the day of steam navigation--did the Great Lakes rise to importance as highways of immigration, and south of the Ohio River Basin there was no westward waterway of importance. The day of the keel-boat and barge was of moment in the broadening of the American sphere of influence on this continent, and nowhere is the study of these ancient craft made to so good advantage as on the Ohio and its tributaries. This monograph is devoted, therefore, to the part played by this waterway as a road into the West. The two introductory chapters, concerning Céloron and the first occupation of the Old Northwest, added to previous volumes of this series (iii, iv, v, and vi), complete the legendary and historical setting necessary for a proper view of the Ohio in the first momentous years of the nineteenth century. The occupation and filling of the southern shores of the Ohio was the story of Volume VI; the story of the filling of the northern shore is outlined in the second chapter of this book. With the position of the first colonies and settlements in the great valley well comprehended, and a conception of the origin of the different colonies and their varied types, the next logical step in our study is the rise of the river trade and its evolution.