A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River

By Barlow Cumberland

TORONTO:
The Musson Book Company
Limited

COPYRIGHTED
IN CANADA
1913

PUBLISHERS' NOTE.

Although the book is published about two months after the author's death, it will be gratifying to many readers to know that all the final proofs were passed by Mr. Cumberland himself. Therefore the volume in detail has the author's complete sanction. We have added to the illustrations a portrait of the author.

FOREWORD.

This narrative is not, nor does it purport to be one of general navigation upon Lake Ontario, but solely of the vessels and steamers which plyed during its century to the ports of the Niagara River, and particularly of the rise of the Niagara Navigation Co., to which it is largely devoted.

Considerable detail has, however been given to the history of the steamers "Frontenac" and "Ontario" because the latter has hitherto been reported to have been the first to be launched, and the credit of being the first to introduce steam navigation upon Lake Ontario has erroneously been given to the American shipping.

Successive eras of trading on the River tell of strenuous competitions. Sail is overpassed by steam. The new method of propulsion wins for this water route the supremacy of passenger travel, rising to a splendid climax when the application of steam to transportation on land and the introduction of railways brought such decadence to the River that all its steamers but one had disappeared.

The transfer of the second "City of Toronto" and of steamboating investment from the Niagara River to the undeveloped routes of the Upper Lakes leads to a diversion of the narration as bringing the initiation of another era on the Niagara River and explaining how the steamer, which formed its centre, came to be brought to the River service.

The closing 35 years of the century form the era of the Niagara Navigation Co., in which the period of decadence was converted into one of intense activity and splendid success.

Our steam boating coterie had been promised by Mr. Chas. Gildersleeve, General Manager of the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Co., that he would write up the navigation history of the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River sections upon which he and his forbears had been foremost leaders. Unfortunately he passed away somewhat suddenly, before being able to do this, and they pressed upon me to produce the Niagara section which had been alloted to myself.

The narration has been completed during the intervals between serious illness and is sent out in fulfilment of a promise, but yet in hope that it may be found acceptable to transportation men and with its local historical notes interesting to the travelling public.

Thanks are given to Mr. J. Ross Robertson, for the reproduction of some cuts of early steamers, and particularly to Mr. Frederick J. Shepard, of the Buffalo Public Library, who has been invaluable in tracing up and confirming data in the United States.

Dr. A. G. Dougaty, C.M.G., Archivist of Canada, Mr. Frank Severance, of the Buffalo Historical Society, and Mr. Locke, Public Librarian, Toronto, have been good enough to give much assistance which is warmly acknowledged.

Barlow Cumberland.

Dunain, Port Hope.

A CENTURY OF SAIL AND STEAM ON THE NIAGARA RIVER.

Chap. I.—The First Eras of Canoe and Sail 9

Chap. II.—The First Steamboats on the River and Lake Ontario 17

Chap. III.—More Steamboats and Early Water Routes. The River the Centre of Through Travel East and West. 25

Chap. IV.—Expansion and Decline of Traffic on the River. A Final Flash, and a Move to the North 36

Chap. V.—On the Upper Lakes With the Wolseley Expedition and Lord Dufferin 47

Chap. VI.—A Novel Idea and a New Venture. Buffalo in Sailing Ship Days. A Risky Passage 58

Chap. VII.—Down Through the Welland. The Miseries of Horse-towing Times. Port Dalhousie and a Lake Veteran. The Problem Solved. Toronto at Last 68

Chap. VIII.—The Niagara Portal. Old Times and Old Names at Newark and Niagara. A Winter of Changes. A New Rivalry Begun 80

Chap. IX.—The First Season of The Niagara Navigation Company. A Hot Competition. Steamboat Manoeuvres 94

Chap. X.—Change Partners Rate-cutting and Racing. Hanlan and Toronto Waterside. Passenger Limitation Introduced 109

Chap. XI.—Niagara Camps Formed. More Changes and Competition. Beginnings of Railroads in New York State. Early Passenger Men and Ways 119

Chap. XII.—First Railways to Lewiston. Expansion Required. The Renown of the Let-Her-B. A Critic of Plimsoll 134

Chap. XIII.—Winter and Whisky in Scotland. Rail Arrives at Lewiston Dock. How Cibola got Her Name. On the U. E. Loyalist Route. Ongiara Added 143

Chap. XIV.—Running the Blockade on the Let-Her-B. as Told by Her Captain-owner 156

Chap. XV.—The Canadian Electric Railway to Queenston. An Old Portage Route Revived. The Trek to the Western States. Chippewa Arrives. Railway Chief 165

Chap. XVI.—Cibola Goes, Corona Comes. The Gorge Electric Railway Opens to Lewiston. How the Falls Cut Their Way Back Through the Rocks. Royal Visitors. The Decisiveness of Israel Tarte. 178

Chap. XVII.—Cayuga Adds Her Name. Niagara and Hamilton Rejoined. Ice Jams on the River. The Niagara Ferry Completed. Once More the United Management From "Niagara to the Sea" 189

INDEX.