Flatboats, barges rode the Yough in Connellsville’s early days
When you were growing up, did you ever imagine floating down the Mississippi River on a raft just like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn? These two boys were seeking adventure. Today, we can enjoy a raft trip launching in Connellsville and ending in Dawson just for the pleasure of an outdoor adventure. Sometimes, depending on the amount of water in the Youghiogheny, you might get stuck on a rock or a portion of the riverbed and have to rock yourself free, but it’s worth the effort.
What a magnificent leisurely float where you can enjoy the beauty of nature and see the river in a totally different perspective than you can by just walking along the bank of the Yough. Our river is one of our greatest natural resources, but today we tend to look on the river only as a source of recreation and our necessary water supply.
But there were people here in Connellsville who floated down the Youghiogheny and eventually to the Monongahela, Ohio and finally the Mississippi on rafts and barges as a way to earn a living.
Now how could you earn a living floating down this tremendous inland river network? Remember in the late 1700s and up to the mid 1800s, the road system to the east, where a market for our products existed, was horrible. It was much easier to get our iron products that were manufactured here in Connellsville to customers by floating the items by flatboats or barges to market. Sometimes they even went the entire way to that super port at the mouth of the Mississippi, New Orleans.
We are not sure when and where the flatboat building industry started around here, but it probably began in the vicinity of Stewart’s Crossing (Connellsville) by the early settlers and traders moving west.
These early arrivals to our area had just crossed the Allegheny Mountains on foot bringing precious commodities on the backs of pack animals, and now they might construct crude boats and go some of the additional distance westward by water.
It wasn’t too long before bright local residents saw the possibility of making some money by going into the boat building business and have the boats ready when people were passing through our area on their way farther west. One of the first saw mills west of the Allegheny Mountains was set up at Stewart’s Crossing around 1789 and provided much of the lumber used in the early Connellsville industry of boat building.
The boats were built at various places along the Yough from Connellsville to the “Little Falls” at the mouth of Furnace Run which was located a short distance north of Dickerson Run.
The boats were usually built with flat bottoms and were from 80 to 150 feet in length, 18 to 22 feet wide, and six to 10 feet deep. This size was about as big as could be piloted around the curves and danger points of the Youghiogheny. Once the boats reached the Monongahela and the Ohio, the crew had to deal with fewer river problems.
Bill said that numerous barges were built at Adelaide between spring and fall.
The iron products manufactured here were shipped out during the spring and fall flooding when the Youghiogheny had sufficient water to float the heavy barges along their way.
The bargemen, as they traveled along the rivers, sold skillets, tea kettles, spoons, bowls and other hollow ware to the customers at towns and settlements along the rivers. Bill said it might take the crew until they reached New Orleans to sell all the products they had loaded onto the barges in Connellsville.
Whenever all the products were sold, the boats were also sold for whatever price they would bring. It was rare for a boat to be brought back home against the current. Some of the boats were used on other rivers by other merchants or travelers. Generally, the boats were sold for the hard wood that they were built of because it was valuable.
The owners of the boats were often also the crew members, and they came back home by overland routes. Bill’s mother’s family, the Cramers and Whites, were involved by this early shipping industry of our area. He said that in the early days after floating the merchandise down the river and selling all of it, the crew walked home. This was quite dangerous because they were often attacked by highwaymen who knew they had cash. Later, the crew members purchased horses and rode back to Connellsville in large groups for protection.
Eventually, when the coal and coke industries began to expand and intensify in importance, the value of the river transportation would grow tremendously. Huge amounts of both products were shipped to places like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
The railroad would enter the picture and replace shipping on the Youghiogheny, but we can still travel to Pittsburgh today and see barges transporting huge cargoes up and down the rivers and get an idea of what it must have been like in the past when our early industrial products were shipped to market via the Youghiogheny.
So when the summer rolls around, you might consider a float trip down the Youghiogheny and listen to your boatman relate the history of this vital resource that we are fortunate to have; a river running through Connellsville.
Our Youghiogheny was our early artery that connected Connellsville industrialist with the outside world where we had the opportunity to share our area’s wealth with the rest of the United States; a link to other places.
Also mark June 25 and 26, 2005 on your calendar as the dates when the reenactment of Gen. Edward Braddock’s army crossing the Youghiogheny River at Stewart’s Crossing (Connellsville) as part of the 250th anniversary of the French and Indian War.
Your comments about or submissions to this column are welcome. Please send them to Pete Skirchak, Connellsville Editor, 160 W. Crawford Ave., Connellsville, PA 15425 or e-mail: pskirchak@heraldstandard.com.