The History of Louisville, from the Earliest Settlement till the Year 1852 Part 12

The commercial and manufacturing statistics of Louisville come next to be considered. And it is well to state here, however discreditable such statement may be to the city, that no business organization of any kind has ever been attempted and no statistical tables have ever been kept either by the city government, by societies or individuals. The only means left to the statistician, therefore, have been the tedious and often incomplete process of personal application and investigation. The statistics which are here offered to the reader are derived from the best authority and are believed to be correct, but are necessarily far less complete than could have been wished. This outline will, however, serve to give some idea of the general business character of the city.

All departments of business in Louisville are transacted upon a very large scale. It is perhaps the greatest fault in the commercial character of the city that everything is conducted upon too large a scale. There is, to use a painter's phrase, too much of outline and too little in detail. The wealth and importance of cities depends less upon the great than upon the small dealers and manufacturers; these latter are content with doing each a small and careful business which may gradually rise to be of vast extent, and which will thus really improve and profit the city more than the mighty efforts of the large dealer. In Louisville, however, none are contented to do a little business. The feeling seems to exist that mercantile or manufacturing pursuits are respectable just in proportion to the capital employed in them, and the desire of every one seems to be to attain a high point of respectability. Louisville greatly lacks that cla.s.s of inhabitants, so useful to a city, who are content to attain wealth by careful and laborious means, who can commence with the basket of apples and gradually work up to the proud proprietorship of extensive ware-houses or factories. There is everywhere prevalent among those who should seek to rise gradually, a desire to place themselves at once in a rank with the largest dealers. It is the small dealer and the small manufacturer, who is content to rise by his own efforts, unaided by fact.i.tious means of any sort, who is needed here. There is abundant room and abundant work for such, their advent is courted; and, if they will avoid the characteristic desire for extensive business relations and be content to seek their fortunes by pains-taking progress, their success is infallibly certain.

It has already been remarked that the aggregate amount of sales in any one department of business divided by the number of houses engaged in that business would show a very large result. In this statement reference is had only to those exclusively wholesale houses, whose sales are made to dealers. No exclusively retail houses of any sort are placed in the enumeration, though the sales of many of the retail stores would fully equal, if indeed they did not exceed, some of the wholesale houses. The difficulty of reaching any proper account of the retail business will, however, prevent any notice being taken of it in this volume.

Louisville contains _twenty-five_ exclusively wholesale DRY GOODS houses, whose sales are made only to dealers and whose market reaches from Northern Louisiana to Northern Kentucky and embraces a large part of the States of Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Illinois, Mississippi and Arkansas. The aggregate amount of annual sales by these houses is _five million, eight hundred_ and _fifty-three thousand_ (5,853,000) _dollars_, or an average of _two hundred_ and _thirty-four thousand_ (234,000) _dollars_ to each house. The sales of three of the largest of these houses amount in the aggregate to _one million, seven hundred_ and _eighty-nine thousand_ (1,789,000) _dollars_. Neither this statement nor those which follow include any auction houses.

In BOOTS & SHOES, the sales of the _eight_ houses of the above description reach _one million, one hundred_ and _eighty-four thousand_ (1,184,000) _dollars_, or _one hundred_ and _forty-eight thousand_ (148,000) _dollars_ to each house. The sales of the three largest houses in this business reach _six hundred_ and _thirty thousand_ (630,000) _dollars_.

The aggregate amount of annual sales by _eight houses_ in DRUGS, &c., is _one million, one hundred_ and _twenty-three thousand_ (1,123,000) _dollars_, or _one hundred_ and _forty thousand, three hundred_ and _seventy-five_ (140,375) _dollars_ to each house; and the sales of the three largest houses amount to _seven hundred_ and _fifty-three thousand_ (753,000) _dollars_.

The sales of HARDWARE by _nine houses_ amount annually to _five hundred_ and _ninety thousand_ (590,000) _dollars_, being an average of _sixty-five thousand, five hundred_ and _fifty-five_ (65,555) _dollars_ to each house.

The sales of SADDLERY reach _nine hundred_ and _eighty thousand_ (980,000) _dollars_, of which nearly one-half are of domestic manufacture.

The sales of HATS and CAPS, necessarily including sales at retail, amount to _six hundred_ and _eighty-three thousand_ (683,000) _dollars_.

The sales of QUEENSWARE, less reliably taken, reach _two hundred_ and _sixty-five thousand_ (265,000) _dollars_.

There are _thirty-nine_ wholesale GROCERY houses, whose aggregate sales reach _ten millions, six hundred_ and _twenty-three thousand, four hundred_ (10,623,400) _dollars_, which gives an average of _two hundred_ and _seventy-two thousand, four hundred_ (272,400) _dollars_ to each house. A brief statement of some of the princ.i.p.al annual imports in the Grocery line will perhaps give a better idea of this business. The figures refer to the year 1850:

Louisiana Sugar 15,615 hhds.

Refined " 10,100 p'ckgs.

Mola.s.ses 17,500 bbls.

Coffee 42,500 bags.

Rice 1,275 tierces.

Cotton Yarns 17,925 bags.

Cheese 25,250 boxes.

Flour 80,650 bbls.

Bagging 70,160 pieces.

Rope 65,350 coils.

Salt, Kanawha 110,250 bbls.

" Turk's Island 50,525 bags.

The following Recapitulatory Table will enable the reader to see at a glance all that has just been stated:

TABLE.

------------------------------------------------------------------ Description of Business. No of Aggregate Annual Average Sales to Houses. Sales. each house.

------------------------ ------- ---------------- ---------------- Groceries 39 $10,623,400 $272,400 Dry Goods 25 5,853,000 234,000 Boots and Shoes 8 1,184,000 148,000 Drugs 8 1,123,000 140,375 Hardware 9 590,000 65,555 Queensware 6 265,000 44,166 Hats, Furs, &c. 8 683,000 85,375 ------------------------ ------- ---------------- ---------------- Total 103 $20,321,400 $197,295 ------------------------------------------------------------------

It will be seen that these tables do not include many of the largest departments of business. Beside the houses already mentioned are many commission houses, whose sales in cotton, tobacco, rope, bagging, hemp, provisions &c., would very greatly increase the amounts above stated. The impossibility of procuring accurate and reliable statistics of the amount of sales by these houses will prevent any attempt to fix the exact ratio of their business. The Western reader who is at all connected with commerce does not, however, need to be told that the trade in these articles in Louisville is of immense extent. The great superiority of this city as a market for hemp and its products, bagging and rope, is so obvious, so well known and so widely acknowledged, that any dissertation upon these merits is unnecessary here.

As a TOBACCO MARKET, Louisville possesses advantages which are not afforded by any other Western or Southern city. The rapid and healthful increase in the receipts and sales of this article during the last few years is of itself sufficient evidence of this fact. Even as early as the year 1800 the prospects of the city in this regard, though in the distant future, were looked upon as highly flattering. A Mr. Campbell had at that time a tobacco ware-house, which was situated opposite Corn Island. This ware-house was suppressed by the legislature in 1815, and a new one ordered to be erected at "the mouth of Beargra.s.s." The building thus directed was located on Pearl Street, about one hundred feet from Main, and the salary of the Inspector was fixed at 25, currency, per annum.

This inspector resided at some distance from the city, and when a sufficient quant.i.ty of tobacco had been collected at the ware-house to make it an object, he was sent for to come and perform his duties. The entire crop did not then exceed 500 hogsheads. There are at present in the city three large tobacco ware-houses, all receiving and selling daily immense quant.i.ties of this article. Speculators are attracted to this market from great distances and the receipts are continually upon the increase. The following table of receipts since 1837 will show how steadily and securely this increase has been effected:

1837 2,133 hhds.

1838 2,783 "

1839[18] 1,295 "

1840 3,113 "

1841 4,031 "

1842 5,131 "

1843 5,424 "

1844 "

1845 8,454 "

1846 9,700 "

1847 7,070 "

1848 4,937 "

1849 8,906 "

1850 7,155 "

1851 11,300 "

1852 16,176 "

These figures are of themselves a strong argument in favor of this city as a market for tobacco. The reasons for the steady and rapid increase in the receipts of this article, as well as for the opinion that this is the best market for tobacco in the United States, are very simple, very convincing and very easily stated. In the first place, it is a fact well known to all tobacco dealers, that in the three divisions of Kentucky--to-wit: the Northern, Southern and Middle--a variety of leaf, suitable to _all_ the purposes of the manufacturer, is grown. In no other State is so great and so complete a variety of leaf produced. The cigar maker, the lump manufacturer and the stemmer all find in this State the article just suited to their various purposes. These tobaccos all naturally find their way to Louisville as a market, and, of a necessary consequence, attract buyers to this place. Beside this advantage, another important point is gained in the presence of the numerous manufacturers of tobacco in Louisville. These persons, having to compete with the established markets of older States, offer large prices to the planter and so attract here great quant.i.ties of the article. It is well known that really fine tobacco, for manufacturing purposes, has brought and will always command here as high rates as can be had for it at any other point in the United States. The number of manufacturers is rapidly increasing, the character of the article which they produce is steadily growing into favor, and the market for its sale is enlarging every day, so that planters cannot be so blinded to their interests as to seek foreign markets for an article which will pay them so handsomely at their own doors. Again: the facilities for the shipment of the article from this point to the various Eastern markets are recently so increased that an entirely new demand has sprung up for Louisville tobacco. Western New York, Western Pennsylvania, Northern Illinois, Ohio and Michigan, all of which were formerly obliged to look to New York City for their supplies of this article, have recently turned their faces westwardly, for the simple reason that they can now get the same article at less rates of freight and without the former numerous and onerous commissions. Nor is this the only benefit procured to these purchasers in choosing this market. It is well known that, unless tobacco is in unusually excellent order, it is always seriously injured by being confined on shipboard in its pa.s.sage through the warm climate of the Gulf of Mexico and along the coast of the Southern States. And as Louisville is the only other prominent shipping point for the article, it has, of course, this great advantage over rival markets.

The facts above enumerated indicate only the prominent and leading reasons for believing Louisville to be the best tobacco market in the Union. Many other advantages might be enumerated, but these, which are all acknowledged and have been demonstrated over and over again, are considered sufficient to establish the proposition. However much Louisville has gained in regard to this article, there is yet much to gain. Her destiny is but beginning to be unfolded, and only a few years will elapse until the largest of the receipts above quoted will appear quite insignificant and worthless beside the swollen columns of the statistician of a future period.

The a.s.sertion that Louisville is destined very soon to become distinguished also as a COTTON MARKET may excite some surprise among those who have not had their attention called to this matter. But that this is a fact can readily be shown to the most skeptical. The consumption of cotton in the West amounts to 35,000 bales, and heretofore this has const.i.tuted the entire demand of this section of the country. But the recent opening up of new means of communication with the Atlantic coast at the East has begun and will complete an entirely new state of affairs in this regard. Let us look for a moment at the effect of these new facilities of transport. By the 1st of January, 1853, an uninterrupted communication with the Atlantic at the North will be effected by the lake route, continuing from 1st of May to 1st of November. At the same time the Jeffersonville Railroad will have established connection with other railroads reaching to New York. Beside all of which, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad will have been completed from Wheeling to Baltimore, from which point all descriptions of Western produce can reach Philadelphia and New York, either by railroad, or, more cheaply, by means of propellers, steamers and sail-vessels. The completion of this latter road will be the signal for the establishment of a line of steam-packets from Louisville to Wheeling, another to Memphis, and yet another to Nashville. These lines are already established and merely wait the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to go at once into operation. A line of packets to Tusc.u.mbia and Florence is already in successful operation. The facts above stated are well known to the community both East and West. It only remains, therefore, to examine how they will affect Louisville as a market for cotton. New Orleans, it cannot be denied, has heretofore been considered the only proper point of shipment for this article, but if both the seller and the buyer can be benefited by a change of markets, surely that change will ensue. New Orleans is certainly the natural depot for Southern cotton, but if the cotton raised in Alabama, Tennessee and North Mississippi, or that which finds its way to market down the c.u.mberland and Tennessee rivers, can be placed in Louisville at less rates of freight than would be charged to New Orleans, and thence can reach the Eastern markets in less time and at less rates than from that city, it is surely the interest of both seller and buyer to make Louisville their market. Now it is certain that from these points cotton will be carried to Louisville at one dollar per bale less than to New Orleans; it is equally certain that insurance can be had via Louisville to New York at _one-half_ the rates charged via New Orleans, and that freight, after the 1st of January next, from this city onward, will be the same as from New Orleans; beside which the time of transit will be thirty days less, thus saving no inconsiderate sum in interest. Again, the trade of North Alabama, Tennessee and North Mississippi with this city is ascertained to reach two and a half millions of dollars. To pay this debt seventy thousand bales of cotton, valued at seven cents per pound, would be required. Here is presented another reason why this cotton should seek Louisville as its natural market. One of our most sagacious and enterprising merchants has recently returned from the East, where, with laudable energy, he had been presenting the claims of this market to Eastern buyers. And the result of this mission is, that reliable arrangements have been made for buying whatever cotton may come to this market at New Orleans quotations. It is perfectly safe then to predict from January of next year a spirited and regular demand for all the cotton which may be sent here. The 140,000 bales produced in Tennessee, or finding its way to market from Tennessee river, will find ready sale in Louisville and at the regular New Orleans prices. Can it be doubted, in view of all these facts, that Louisville is entirely certain to attain prominence as a market for cotton. This has long been the natural market for the article, and only waited the completion of lines of connection with the East, which, now they are about to go into operation, must of necessity make it the _first cotton market of the Western country_.

Louisville also deserves consideration as a market for pork. This market, though perhaps less in extent here than in some other Western cities, is steadily increasing in the amount of its operations and rapidly growing into favor with the dealers. In 1827 there were but two pork houses in the city; one of which was owned by Patrick Maxcy and the other by Colmesnil and O'Beirne. It was then the custom to buy the hog in small lots from the farmers by means of agents who traveled through the State. These hogs so procured were concentrated at some point and corn was bought and fed to them until the time for slaughtering arrived, when they were driven to this city and here butchered. The number of hogs killed by these two houses did not then exceed fifteen thousand, while at the end of the pork season in 1851, this amount had been increased to one hundred and ninety-five thousand, four hundred and fourteen. It is fully calculated by the packers that this number will be exceeded ten per cent in the ensuing year. Both the farmer and the buyer have reasons for prefering this city as a pork market. The farmer, because it is not the custom here to "_scale_" the hog--that is, to make a standard weight for which the market price is given, while all below that point are taken at reduced figures--and the buyer, because pork is here packed under the same roof where it is butchered. This last may be considered a small inducement; but when it is remembered that where the butchering and packing are carried on by different individuals and in different parts of the city, the hog is obliged to be transported at all seasons and in all states of weather from house to house at considerable labor and cost and with danger of damage to the meat, it will be found an item worthy the serious consideration of the buyer. The meat put up here is surpa.s.sed in quality by none in the world, and when the facilities of transportation referred to in the above remarks upon cotton are established, the growth of this city as a pork market will be yet more rapid than it has before been. There are at present eight large pork houses in the city. The importance of Louisville as a pork market is well enough known to need no further elaboration of its merits in these pages.

The manufacturing interests of Louisville come now to claim their share of attention. And it is somewhat singular that, with the resources and capacity of this city as a place for manufactures, there should be so little to boast of in this regard. Of her commercial statistics, as has already been shown, Louisville has abundant cause to be proud, but she has at the same time reason to regret the little use which has heretofore been made of her immense advantages as a manufacturing point. It is not to be denied that there are many excellent manufacturing establishments in and around the city, but the number is greatly below what is needed and greatly disproportioned to the advantages offered here. There are many reasons why this city should hold prominent rank as a place for manufactures. The facilities in the way of water-power, the immense surface of level and highly productive country by which it is surrounded, the cheapness of rents and of building lots, and the advantages for placing the manufactured article in market, are among the most prominent of these reasons. There is, perhaps, no city in the Union where similarly great inducements are offered to the judicious and enterprising manufacturer. And yet the results of commercial enterprise of other sorts have been so successful and so rapidly produced as to lead away from the manufacturing interests much capital which would otherwise have been invested in them. The brilliant success of any one department of trade in a city has usually led to precisely similar results as are alluded to here. Of this Cincinnati furnishes a notable example. Her earliest success was effected by means of her manufactures, and persons seeking investment for their capital naturally gave it the direction which had already proved productive. Louisville, on the contrary, owing to her peculiar location, found her earliest and most promising evidences of prosperity in commerce, and consequently all the capital seeking employment was naturally drawn into this channel. And it is unfortunate for Louisville that this has been true, for however important commercial prosperity may be to a city, it is far inferior in point of utility and universal profit to the advantages conferred by successful manufactures. During the last four or five years this matter has begun to engage the attention of capitalists and a proper and healthful feeling is rapidly gaining ground in favor of this branch of trade. Many new factories have already sprung up, and several more are on the eve of establishment. The public mind is fully awakened to the necessity for building up and for encouraging the products of home industry, and the producer has taken new rank in public estimation. The prejudice which may once have existed against mechanical employments of all sorts is no longer felt, but the manufacturer and his employees are held alike high in favor and in social rank.

The following table of manufactures in Louisville is chiefly taken from the census report of 1850. Additions have been made to the more important branches of manufacture as far as reliable data could be obtained, so as to enable the reader to have a comprehensive view of the subject up to the present time. It is believed that the figures in this table are under the actual amounts; it is certain, at any rate, that they do not in any instance exceed the truth. A more extended and special notice of the princ.i.p.al manufacturing establishments of the city will be given in an appendix to this volume, to which all who feel an interest in the state of manufactures here are especially referred.

TABLE OF MANUFACTURES.

Kind of Manufacture. No. of No. of Annual Factories. hands. product.

Animal Charcoal 2 12 $15,000 Awnings and Tents 2 12 7,500 Artificial Flowers 1 3 6,000 Bagging Factories 3 120 184,000 Bakers 96 332 469,200 Bandboxes 3 9 3,800 Baskets 3 7 5,400 Bellows 2 7 15,000 Blacking 3 12 7,500 Blacksmiths 49 254 163,400 Blinds, Venitian 3 12 14,200 Blocks and Spars 2 12 7,500 Bootmakers 63 302 375,100 Brewers 6 30 108,600 Brushes 2 9 5,813 Bricks 36 339 224 000 Bristle Dressers 1 3 2,500 Burr Stones 1 8 12,000 Boiler Makers 4 30 64,200 Candy 9 56 184,800 Camphine, &c. 1 3 31,500 Carpenters 144 916 1,027,600 Cars, &c. 1 100 Carpet Weavers 2 14 6,000 Coach Makers 9 98 123.300 Cotton and Wool 3 135 173,500 Clothing 45 1,157 941,500 Composition Roofing 1 Combs 6 18 9,800 Coopers 20 60 56,800 Cement 1 4 10,000 Edge Tools 2 9 16,000 Feed and Flour Mills 9 47 283,800 Flooring and Saw Mills 14 190 420,200 Fringes, Ta.s.sels, &c. 1 6 8,700 Furniture 25 446 638,000 Foundries 15 930 1,392 200 Gla.s.s Cutters 1 3 $2,500 Glue 2 6 5,000 Gunsmiths 4 8 14,000 Gla.s.s 1 50 50,000 Hats 6 68 201,700 Last Makers 1 2 2,500 Lath Makers 1 4 5,000 Lock Makers 6 38 37,400 Leather Splitter 1 1 1,000 Lithographers 2 9 20,000 Looking Gla.s.s, &c. 2 11 12,000 Machinists[19] 2 5 6,200 Marble Workers 4 41 35,000 Mathematical Inst. Makers 1 3 6,500 Mustard 2 13 21,000 Musical Inst. Makers 3 60 Millinery 35 344 340,000 Oil Cloth 2 12 11,500 Oil Stones 1 6 22,900 Oil, Lard and Linseed 3 16 140,000 Nail 1 2 3,000 Paper Mill 1 36 113,000 Plane 3 8 13,000 Platform Scale 1 11 12,000 Patent Medicines 24 127 467,400 Printing Offices 12 201 214,000 Plows 4 32 35,000 Perfumery 2 10 8,000 Pottery 2 14 11,500 Pork Houses 4 475 1,370,000 Pumps 3 16 15,100 Rope 11 166 460,000 Saddlery 17 114 236,000 Saddle Trees 1 7 7,500 Soap and Candles 6 59 409,000 Starch 1 8 20,000 Steamboat Carpenters[20] 4 75 $235,000 Stocking Weavers 1 10 5,000 Silversmiths 4 18 34,500 Stucco 1 5 7,000 Tobacco and Segars 82 1,050 1,347,500 Tin, Copper, &c. 17 87 122,300 Tanners 9 64 176,000 Trunks 3 27 29,500 Turners[21] 4 8 11,600 Upholsterers 5 21 56,000 White Lead 1 8 12,600 Wigs 1 4 8,000 Whips 1 2 1,500 Wire Workers 2 12 12,500 Wagons 20 144 184,800

To this list may be added the following memoranda of steamboats for 1850.

It has been found impossible to bring this list forward as far as 1852. In the former year there were employed on 53 steamboats, owned in Louisville, 1,903 hands. The amount of capital invested in these boats was $1,293,300, and the annual product for freight and pa.s.sage reached $2,549,200.

CONCLUSION.

In concluding this history it will be well to look back and examine the ratio of its progress for the last half century, as well in population as in pecuniary value. This may be done: first, in the following table showing the increase in numbers of every ten years; and second, in a tabular view of the a.s.sessment of real estate at the end of each similar term of years. The population of Louisville then, commencing with the year 1800, may be stated as follows:

1800 600 1810 1,300 1820 4,000 1830 10,090 1840 21,000 1850 43,217 1852 51,726

It will be seen from this table that the city has never shown as rapid an increase as has been effected in the last two years. This is the result chiefly of the impulse which has been given to Louisville by her action in reference to lines of railroad, and other facilities of communication with distant points, as well as of the fact that a new energy has been infused into the commercial circles, and more vigorous efforts have consequently been made to afford to this city that reputation as a commercial mart, which she has long deserved.

Of the present population of Louisville, no less than 18,000 are Germans, and this number is daily being augmented by arrivals from the fatherland.

It would perhaps be no more than just to say that these foreigners form, as a body, one of the best cla.s.ses of our population. They are a careful, pains-taking and industrious people, of quiet, un.o.btrusive and inoffensive manners; and are, in a majority of instances, men of some education and ability. The better cla.s.s of this population are rapidly rising in public estimation, and while they are becoming in a measure identified with the native citizens, and so Americanized, the influence of their philosophic habits of mind, of their thoughtfulness, and of their love of the beautiful in nature and in art, is gradually incorporating itself into the social life of the city, and so adding to each some of the advantages possessed by the other. The German character, in its higher developements, displays many attributes which are wanting, in more senses than one to our native population. From the educated German, we may learn that enthusiastic love and reverence for the intellectual and for the beautiful in all its phases, whether of nature, of sentiment, or of art, which is inherent in his character, and which gives to life so much of its charm; while by us he is taught that practicality must be the basis of his philosophy, and that without a certain admixture of utilitarianism his sentiment is mawkish and unmanly, and his theories are idly speculative and puerile. Thus each cla.s.s imbibes from the other what it most needs, and society reaps the benefits of the union. The German population is also useful to the city in a political point of view. They serve as the "filling up" to the picture. As has been recently said: "The bulk of the population of every city, perhaps two out of three, are small manufacturers or artisans of some description or other, and those dependent on them; of the sewers together of clothing, the makers of toys, confectionary, and jewelry, the compounders of materials used in medicine and the arts, the furnishers of the toilet, the parlor, and the kitchen, the fabricators of iron, wood, and stone into forms required by the uses or fancies of man. Think of the amount of our yearly purchases of Boston bonnets, New York caps, and Philadelphia shoes, and of the thousand, the innumerable articles that our retail and fancy dealers pick up in the lanes, alleys, and cellars of those cities, articles which were made for Western demand, for the very market of which this is the natural, and ought to be the commercial center. To this kind of population we are to look for increase, these hand workers are to cover our vacant lots, and consume the products of our surrounding agriculturists; they come in silently, and go to work unnoticed; the grocer at the corner, the baker, and the brewer, build higher houses, and are men of more noise and note, and we forget that for every one of the latter there must be one hundred of the former."[22]