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to be found in the annals of American commerce originated almost
simultaneously in the Muskingum and Monongahela regions
One of the most remarkable plans for the capture of foreign trade
to be found in the annals of American commerce originated almost
simultaneously in the Muskingum and Monongahela regions. With a
view to making the American West independent of the Spanish
middlemen, it was proposed to build ocean-going vessels on the
Ohio that should carry the produce of the interior down the
Mississippi and thence abroad through the open port of New
Orleans. The idea was typically Western in its arrogant
originality and confident self-assertion. Two vessels were built:
the brig St. Clair, of 110 tons, at Marietta, and the Monongahela
Farmer, of 250 tons, at Elizabeth on the Monongahela. The former
reached Cincinnati April 27, 1801; the latter, loaded with 750
barrels of flour, passed Pittsburgh on the 13th of May.
Eventually, the St. Clair reached Havana and thus proved that
Muskingum Valley black walnut, Ohio hemp, and Marietta
carpenters, anchor smiths, and skippers could defy the grip of
the Spaniard on the Mississippi. Other vessels followed these
adventurers, and shipbuilding immediately became an important
industry at Pittsburgh, Marietta, Cincinnati, and other points.
The Duane of Pittsburgh was said by the Liverpool ‘Saturday
Advertiser’ of July 9, 1803, to have been the ‘first vessel which
ever came to Europe from the western waters of the United
States.’ Probably the Louisiana of Marietta went as far afield as
any of the one hundred odd ships built in these years on the
Ohio. The official papers of her voyage in 1805, dated at New
Orleans, Norfolk (Virginia), Liverpool, Messina, and Trieste at
the head of the Adriatic, are preserved today in the Marietta
College Library.

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resourceful as the voyageurs, to bear the brunt of a new era of
transportation, all that was needed to challenge French trade
beyond the Alleghanies was competent and aggressive leadership
With such a race of born horsemen, every whit as bold and
resourceful as the voyageurs, to bear the brunt of a new era of
transportation, all that was needed to challenge French trade
beyond the Alleghanies was competent and aggressive leadership.
The situation called for men of means, men of daring, men closely
in touch with governors and assemblies and acquainted with the
web of politics that was being spun at Philadelphia,
Williamsburg, New York, London, and Paris. Generations of
tenacious struggle along the American frontier had developed such
men. The Weisers, Croghans, Gists, Washingtons, Franklins,
Walkers, and Cresaps were men of varied descent and nationality.
They had the cunning, the boldness, and the resources to
undertake successfully the task of conquering commercially the
Great West. They were the first men of the colonies to be
unafraid of that bugbear of the trader, Distance. We may aptly
call them the first Americans because, though not a few were
actually born abroad, they were the first whose plans, spirit,
and very life were dominated by the vision of an America of
continental dimensions.

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