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Early
Kentuckians Had Hardships
In Managing Commercial Affairs
Transportion
Of Goods Was A Problem For Tradesmen
By R.
S. Cotterill - 1921
In these
latter days of freight trains, automobiles, and airplanes, it
is difficult to realize the hardships of the early Kentuckians
in managing their commercial affairs. If they went to market
to New Orleans they had to walk back, and if they carried their
goods east they had to cross the mountains. Yet they did both
and were so far from complaining of the difficulties that they
even boasted about the ease of transportation.
All the imports into pioneer Kentucky came from the East, and
this meant the two cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia. The
goods of all kinds and descriptions, but always including a large
percent of copper stills, were hauled on wagons from the coast
to the Ohio River at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, or Wheeling, West
Virginia, and thence sent on flatboats to Maysville, Mason County,
Kentucky, for transportation to central Kentucky. For these goods
the Kentuckians paid in such fashion as they could. After 1795
Spanish silver dollars came in from New Orleans over the Natchez
Trace and quite promptly found their way east. There was always
some trade in Kentucky, never so important as the New Orleans
trade, but decidedly more picturesque.
For the most part, only those products could be taken over the
mountains as had feet of their own. One of the most interesting
of all trades was the driving of horses and mules to market at
Charleston, South Carolina. There was a great demand for Kentucky
mules to use in the cotton fields, and no Southern planter could
hold up his head unless he owned some Kentucky saddle horses
for his family. In the fall of the year, the Kentucky dealers
would combine in great caravans and drive the horses and mules
south, always taking an armed guard along for protection against
robbers. The route taken was the old Wilderness Road through
Cumberland Gap and over the mountains of western North Carolina.
The horse and mule trade to Charleston was a lucrative one and
was still being carried on a generation ago. In the early days
the drivers would go by boat from Charleston to Baltimore, Maryland,
and thence overland to the Ohio River and back down the river
to Kentucky. This commercial intercourse between Charleston and
Kentucky had more than one reaction on politics of the time.
It was certainly one influence that induced Clay to help settle
the nullification trouble and keep South Carolina in the Union.
It was this trade that gave to Calhoun and Hayne their great
idea of building a railroad from Charleston to Louisville and
Lexington, Kentucky, a project actively started but abandoned
on account of the panic of 1837.
More important in the life of the early Kentuckians than the
trade to Charleston was the cattle trade to Baltimore. As in
the case of the Charleston trade, the Kentucky dealers banded
together and drove their cattle overland and under guard. The
usual point of departure for both trades was Crab Orchard, Lincoln
County, and the route taken as the Wilderness Road through Cumberland
Gap. The cattle drive was usually begun in the spring, and after
crossing the mountains the cattle were allowed to graze during
the summer on the luxuriant pastures of the Shenandoah Valley.
When fall came they were driven on down the Shenandoah by way
of Harper's Ferry and Frederick to Baltimore. The drivers had
to make their way home by land as well as they could.
Whenever a drove of mules, horses, or cattle went over the mountains
to the East, pack horses were taken along, laden with articles
for sale in the Eastern markets. These necessarily were articles
that bulked small and sold at a high price. Kentucky had a very
few such articles for sale. Most of its ginseng went to market
this way to Baltimore or Philadelphia and was thence exported
to China. Occasionally, peach brandy or corn whiskey was carried
across the mountains when the caravans crossed, but there was
always danger that the commodity would undergo consumption before
the destination was reached. It was rare that the Kentuckians
brought any goods back by the land route. It was much easier
to bring the imports in by water down the Ohio River. Commerce
on the Ohio, however, was always more or less precarious until
peace was made with the Ohio Indians.
The early Kentuckians did not send sheep to the Eastern markets,
and the reason was that they had no sheep to send. Sheep raising
was too precarious a venture for a new country, where the wolves
and the wildcats had not yet been cleared from the forests and
the ordinary dog was as wild and fierce as the fabled hyena.
Sometime hogs were driven across the mountains, but not often.
The reason for this was that the Kentucky hog was of such a character
that a market was not to be found for it away from home. The
hog was admittedly the unloveliest object of the West. Raising
hogs in Kentucky consisted in turning them out in the woods to
shift for themselves. That they did indeed, feeding on the mast
of the trees and growing so ferocious that dogs would run from
them on sight. The hog's manner of living tended to make it more
muscular than edible. The razorback hog possessed a speed that
today would do credit to a contender for the Kentucky Derby.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about the early Kentuckians was
the long distances they were accustomed to travel as everyday
affairs. Apparently, they thought no more of setting out on a
1,000-mile jaunt than we do of walking around the block. Boone
and Stoner traveled 1,000 miles when they came to Kentucky. The
traders to New Orleans walked home without complaint, and the
stockdrivers to Baltimore and Charleston thought little of the
long trip back home. Certainly, walking was the only mode of
locomotion open to them, and they did not hesitate to make use
of it.
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