Chapter 8 cont. A LINCOLN STORY "It will be remembered by the oldest citizens that the cities of Wheeling and Pittsburg claimed to be at the head of navigation of the Ohio river, and that there was much rivalry between them.  In 1845 the people of Wheeling built a bridge over the Ohio river at that point and when completed the newspapers, in bold headlines, announced that that city was the head of navigation of the Ohio river.  This was true.  The bridge was so low, however, that the larger steamers could not pass under it.  Pittsburg and the vicinity became greatly excited.  Mass meetings were held, speeches were made and resolutions passed denouncing the Wheeling bridge and declaring it an obstruction to free navigation.  Its removal was therefore demanded.  Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, afterward Mr. Lincoln's secretary of war, Hon. Moses Hampton and Hon. Wilson McCandless were employed by the citizens of Pittsburg to bring suit against the Wheeling Bridge company in the federal courts.  This fact apparently flashed upon Mr. Lincoln while earnestly addressing Judge McLean, and fixing his eyes squarely on him, said 'Will your Honor please pardon me if I relate a little incident which will have a bearing upon this case?'  Being assured by the judge that he had a perfect right to talk, Mr. Lincoln continued:  'I once had some business in New Albany upon the Ohio river.  After registering at the hotel I took a walk down to the river.  A number of steamboats were lying at the wharf.  Two of them, Telegraph No. 1, and Hibernian No. 2, were very large boats, and had smoke stacks that seemingly touched the clouds.  I could not comprehend why they were so tall.  While looking at them an Irishman came along with his dray.  He proved to be a true son of the Emerald isle.  I asked him if he could tell me why those two boats had chimneys so much higher than the other boats.  "Yez must be a stranger about her," says Pat.  I told him that I was, and that I lived at Springfield, Illinois.  "And faith, that's where they have the milk sickness."  I told him that I could never locate the disease, but would like to know something about those tall chimneys.  "Well, yez see, them's Pittsburg boats.  Don't yez know that them Wheeling chaps has built a bridge over the Ohio river and then declared that town was the head of navigation of the Ohio river?  The Pittsburg fellows swore that the bridge was an obstruction and must come down.  And by the powers of Kilkenny and the bogs of Tyrone, they made good their oath by building chimneys so high that the boats couldn't go under the bridge, and there yez sees two of the Pittsburg boats.'" Mr. Lincoln's imitation of the Irishman's rich brogue was so ludicrous and interesting that even Judge McLean threw himself back in his chair and joined the attorneys and spectators in a hearty laugh.  Mr. Lincoln won his suit and the bridge was allowed to remain until superseded by the fine iron structure built by the government which now spans the Mississippi river at Davenport." Mr. Lincoln, in preparing his arguments in this case, took advantage of and put into use the survey of the upper rapids of the Mississippi river made in 1837 by a young lieutenant of United States engineers, and it probably occurred to him that in 1832, when cholera was rampant at Fort Armstrong, on Rock island, it was often unwise and dangerous for boats to land there and that a steamboat, carrying Black Hawk, the noted Sac warrior, as a prisoner, was in charge of a lieutenant of the United States army on a steamboat anchored in the stream a few hundred feet above the site of the bridge. Looking back over the years that have long since passed away, an unusual interest is centered in the personnel of some of those whose memories are particularly connected with the history of the bridge and Rock island, for during the war which convulsed the nation three and a half years after this notable trial the attorney who defended the bridge company was president of the United States; the lieutenant who made the survey, Robert E. Lee, was commander in chief of the army of the Confederacy, while the lieutenant who brought Black Hawk to Prairie du Chien, Jefferson Davis, was president of the so-called confederate states of America. Debbie Clough G-erischer G-erischer Family Web Site http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/ Assistant CC, Iowa Gen Web, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ List Manager for: IASCOTT-L * G-erischer-L * D-encker-L Fitzpatirck-L * V-lerebome-L * Huntington-L * Otis-L * Algar-L EIGS-L * Pickens-L * McNab-L * Patris-L - Rankin-L