Friendly, 52.3 m. (650 alt., 170 pop.), named
for Friend Cochran Williamson, grandson of Thomas Williamson who
settled here in 1785, is situated at the head of a long straight
stretch of river valley known as the Long Reach since the days of
Washington's explorations.
At Long Reach, 54.7 m. (612 alt., 25 pop.), are
the remains of Prehistoric Walls, two parallel earthen ramparts,
about 120 feet apart and 3 miles long, extending down the valley to
Bens Run. Believed to have been 12 feet high originally, the walls
have been eroded and are now so covered with vines and weeds that
they are scarcely distinguishable. They enclose an area of 400
acres, divided near the center by a cross wall; the southern half is
additionally divided by two parallel curving walls running north and
south. The northern enclosure contains two burial mounds as yet
unexplored. Near the walls are two stone platforms, one on top of a
knoll. The purpose of the walls has puzzled
archeologists.
The Long Reach, a broad stretch of river
deceptive in its placidity, has been known to rivermen since the
first steamboats pioneered the route from Pittsburgh to Louisville.
In 1816, a series of shifting bars at this point almost caused
disaster for Captain Henry M. Shreve and his steamboat, G.
Washington, en route from Wheeling to New Orleans. Constructed at
Wheeling, the G. Washington was the initial double decker on the
western waterways, being the first steamboat to float on the water
rather than in it. Her sumptuously appointed cabins were named for
the States. Shreve's voyage to New Orleans was undertaken to test
the legality of the claims of the Robert Fulton interests, who had
been granted the exclusive right of operting steamboats on the lower
Mississippi by the legislatures of several States, following the
successful voyage of their New Orleans in 1811. Shreve was arrested
in New Orleans but was released under bond; later, a decision by the
U. S. Supreme Court opened the Mississippi to all comers. The G.
Washington was the first steamboat to demonstrate the practibility
of river navigation by making the voyage upstream from New Orleans
to Louisville in 25 days.
Source: Federal Writers' Project - 1941,
Transcribed by C. Anthony
