William C. Wiggins (1783 - 1853)
Proprietor of General Washington Hotel, Edwardsville; Founder of Wiggins Ferry
William C. Wiggins was born in New York on November 16, 1783. The
Wiggins family had been in the State of New York since about 1646.
William married Mary Berrien (1796-1850), also a native of New York,
and they moved to Charlestown, South Carolina, where their first son
was born, Samuel Berrien Wiggins (1815-1868). The family then moved
to Edwardsville, Madison County, Illinois, where in 1819 William
opened the General Washington Hotel. The brick hotel stood on the
northeast corner of the public square in “Old Town,” east of the old
jail near Liberty Street and N. Main Street. The General Washington
Hotel had an extensive and fashionable patronage, and many
distinguished men ate and slept within its walls, including
prominent doctors and lawyers dressed in their finest. Governor
Edward Coles (inaugurated in 1822), boarded at the hotel for many
years. Its walls were so badly cracked by an earthquake, that it was
necessary to abandon the building. It was purchased by Isaac
Prickett, who tore the building down and used the brick to build two
small houses on Main Street.
In 1819 or 1822, Wiggins purchased the rights to operate a ferry
between St. Louis and Illinois from Captain James S. Piggott. The
Wiggins family moved to St. Louis, where two more sons were born -
Edward C. Wiggins (1821-1862); and Charles Wiggins (1828-1880). From
its small beginnings and makeshift rafts, the Wiggins Ferry Company
built a large business, transporting people to and from St. Louis.
Wiggins had a fleet of ferryboats with names such as “Sea Serpent,”
“Rhinoceros,” and “Antelope.” He even experimented with ferries
powered by horses on treadmills. In 1830, Wiggins upgraded to steam
power, with the “St. Clair” and “Ibez” ferries making two regular
daily river crossings. In the early 1840s, St. Clair County approved
the establishment of another ferry, located south of the Wiggins
ferry. The rivalry between the two became so intense, that a person
could cross on the Wiggins ferry practically toll free. In 1853, it
was reported the Wiggins Ferry Company was doing a highly prosperous
business. They had managed to “keep the field, and destroy all
competition.” The company applied to the State Legislature for a
re-charter, with a capital of one million dollars. The company
wanted power to own fifteen hundred acres (three hundred of coal
land), to build a city on Bloody Island, to charge wharfage fees,
and to build and run any number of ferryboats from the island to St.
Louis. There was opposition to granting this power to the company,
but the bill did pass the Senate and the House, with amendments to
limit their wharfing liabilities.
William Wiggins died of heart disease in St. Louis on November 28,
1853. He was 70 years old. He was buried in the Bellefontaine
Cemetery in St. Louis. Surviving were three sons, Samuel, Edward,
and Charles Wiggins. William’s wife, Mary, died in 1850, and is also
buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery.
By the early 1870s, the former Wiggins company (ran by his
descendants) was averaging 1,500 people, 10,000 bushels of coal, and
750 wagons daily on the ferries. In 1893, the company was sold to
the Terminal Railroad Association. They kept the still-profitable
ferry going for a short time. When the Municipal (MacArthur) Bridge
opened in 1917 as a toll-free passage across the river, the ferry
company was doomed. The last of the ferryboats stopped running in
the early 1930s.