AMERICA

BY
JOEL COOK

In Six Volumes
Volume VI.

MERRILL AND BAKER
New York London

THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGISTERED COPIES, OF WHICH THIS COPY IS NO. 205

Copyright, Henry T. Coates & Co., 1900

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME VI

XIX.
FROM THE OHIO TO THE GULF.

The Ohio River—Economy—The Harmonists—Columbiana—Wheeling—Moundsville—Marietta—Parkersburg—Blennerhassett's Island—Point Pleasant—Maysville—Blue Grass—Lexington—Cincinnati—Covington—Newport—Dayton—North Bend—Carrolton—Frankfort—Kentucky River—Daniel Boone—Louisville—Jeffersonville—Bowling Green—Mammoth Cave—Nashville—Battle of Nashville—Evansville—Cairo—Cumberland River—Tennessee River—Forts Henry and Donelson—Battle of Shiloh—Cumberland Mountains—Cumberland Gap—Mount Mitchell—Chattanooga—Missionary Ridge—Lookout Mountain—Chickamauga Park—The Chickamauga Battles—Rosecrans against Bragg—Battle Above the Clouds—Grant Defeats Bragg—Knoxville—Parson Brownlow—Greenville—Andrew Johnson—Roan Mountain—Land of the Sky—Swannanoa River—Buncombe—Asheville—Biltmore—Hickory-Nut Gap—French Broad River—Hot Springs—Spartansburg—Cowpens—King's Mountain—Charlotte—Mecklenburg—Salisbury Prison—Guilford Court House—Chapel Hill—Durham—Raleigh—Columbia—Aiken—Augusta—Chattahoochee River—Atlanta—Its Siege and Capture—Sherman's March to the Sea—Rome—Anniston—Talladega—Birmingham—Tuscaloosa—Macon—Andersonville Prison—Columbus—West Point—Tuskegee—Alabama River—Montgomery—Cotton Plantations—Selma—Meridian—Jackson—Tombigbee River—Mobile and Its Bay—Admiral Farragut—Capture of Mobile Forts—The Pine and the Orange.

THE OHIO RIVER.

The Ohio—the Indian "stream white with froth," the French La Belle Riviere—is the greatest river draining the western slopes of the Alleghenies. Its basin embraces over two hundred thousand square miles, and it flows for a thousand miles from Pittsburg to the Mississippi at Cairo. In the upper reaches the Ohio is about twelve hundred feet wide, broadening below to twenty-four hundred feet, its depth varying fifty to sixty feet in the stages between low and high water, and it goes along with smooth and placid current at one to three miles an hour, having no fall excepting a rocky rapid of twenty-six feet descent in two miles at Louisville. From Pittsburg it flows northwest about twenty-six miles at the bottom of a deep canyon it has carved down in the table land, so that steep and lofty hills enclose it. Then the river turns west and finally south around the long and narrow "Panhandle" protruding northward from the State of West Virginia. It passes through a thriving agricultural region, with many prosperous cities on its banks, almost everyone having a great railway bridge carrying over the many lines seeking the west and south. In its whole course it descends some four hundred feet; its scenery is largely pastoral and gentle, without the grandeur given by bold cliffs, although much of the shores are beautiful, and its banks in various places disclose elevated terraces, indicating that it formerly flowed at much higher levels, whilst its winding route gives a constant succession of curves that add to the attractiveness.

Eighteen miles from Pittsburg is the town of Economy, where are the fine farms and oil-wells of the quaint community of "Harmonists." Georg Rapp, of Wurtumberg, believing he was divinely called to restore the Christian religion to its original purity, established a colony there on the model of the primitive church, with goods held in common, which in 1803 he transplanted to Pennsylvania, settling in Butler County. A few years later they removed to Indiana, but soon came back, and founded their settlement of Economy in Beaver County in 1824. Originally they numbered six hundred, and grew very rich, but being celibates, their community dwindled until there were only eighteen, who owned a tract of twenty-five hundred acres with valuable buildings and much personal property, so that if divided it was estimated each would have more than $100,000. The baby "Harmonist" then was over sixty years old, and to perpetuate the community, in 1888 they began accepting proselytes, who assumed all the obligations with vows of celibacy, and thus the number was increased to fifty. Economy is a sleepy village, its vine-covered houses built with gables towards the street and without front doors, all being entered from side-yards. They now labor but little themselves, their factories are silent, and their noted brand of Pennsylvania "Economy whiskey" is no longer distilled. Their church-bell rings them up at five o'clock in the morning, they breakfast at six, and at seven the bell again rings for the farmhands to go to work. At nine the bell summons them to lunch, at twelve to dinner, at three to lunch again, at six to supper, and at nine in the evening it finally warns the village to go to bed. They have a noted wine-cellar, and none drink water, but they give all the hands wine and cider, and present cake and wine to every visitor. At the church service, the men sit on one side and the women on the other, and when a "Harmonist" dies he is wrapped in a winding-sheet and buried in the "white graveyard," no tombstone marking the grave. They have recently suffered from litigation, others trying to get a share of their wealth, but they live quietly, awaiting the final summons, firm in their faith, and thoroughly believing its cardinal principle that their last survivor will see the end of the world.

GOING DOWN THE OHIO.

Having crossed the