The story of the tragedy of the str Nick Wall has been updated to include three reports from the NY Times in Dec 1870. Mark Twain also covered the story as well, in “Life on the Mississippi” chapter 30 with a considerable amount of literary license.
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Unusual siting on the Ohio River – deep draft freighter. The photo was taken from the banks of th
e Ohio River in Georgetown in front of the old River Inn hotel. The photo is not dated but I would guess from its size the 1940’s. The ship is either an ocean oor Great Lakes freighter.
No clue on what the occasion for the passing of this style of vessel.
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Str Mollie Ebert (Photo courtesy of Murphy Library, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse)
One hundred-fifty years ago, the str Mollie Ebert was launched into the Monongahela River. In a high-profile ceremony, the packet was christened by Mollie Ebert Trimble and her Aunt Elizabeth Poe Mathews.
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Str Amelia Poe wreckage on Upper Missouri River (The Montana Standard 09 Nov 2002)
One hundred-fifty years ago, four packets owned and operated by Georgetown were working on the upper Missouri River. Profits from these ventures were fabulous. If unsuccessful, fortunes were also lost. On May 24, 1868, the str Amelia Poe sunk at Oswego, MT. The 100 tons of freight aboard was salvaged by 1,500 Indians. The location where the packet snagged is now known as Amelia Poe Bend.
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The Virginia passing under the Wabash Bridge note the stacks (From the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
In the Journal of In-Chambers Practice, Ira Brad Matesky has built upon the work of Cynthia Rapp who collected unpublished in-chambers opinions (ICOs) by the Justices of the Supreme Court of the US. By 2016, the Journal of In-Chambers Practice collection had accumulated 525 opinions. Hard to find. Widely scattered. The records of the Supreme Court and some of these ICOs are stored at The National Archives. Other ICOs are housed with personal papers of individual justices at the Library of Congress and other libraries throughout the country.
My interest is in footnote 2 of an introduction by Ira Brad Matesky in The Continuing Search which addresses The Wheeling Bridge Case and a rare pamphlet with an opinion authored by Justice Roberet Grier in 1849. Footnote 2 flowing over two pages follows:
2 For a detailed treatment of the Wheeling Bridge Case, see ELIZABETH BRAND MONROE, THE WHEELING BRIDGE CASE: ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN AMERICAN LAW AND TECHNOLOGY (Northeastern University Press 1992). For an earlier treatment, see James Morton Callahan, Semi-Centennial History of West Virginia, App. A (1913), available at www.ohiocountylibrary.org/wheeling-history/5279. For some non-legal background, see Francis W. Nash, “A Glance at the Wheeling Bridge Case,” availa-
ble at georgetownsteamboats.com/gs/2010/02/06/a-glance-at-the-wheeling-bridge-case/. Allegations that Justice Grier acted improperly during this litigation (he was exonerated by the House Judiciary Committee) are discussed in Daniel J. Wisniewski, Heating Up a Case Gone Cold: Revisiting the Charges of Bribery and Official Misconduct Made Against Supreme Court Justice Robert Cooper Grier in 1854-55, 38 J. Sup. Ct. Hist. 1 (Spring 2013).
The GeorgetownSteamboats post added color to the The Wheeling Bridge Case not provided by the legally intense IOCs. The str Hibernia No 2 was damaged in the collision with the bridge structure on 11 Nov 1849. Its stacks were torn off. It was one element of the initial legal action. The str Hibernia No 2 was owned by Capt George W Ebert, my double great grandfather.
After the bridge was blown down by wind in 1854, str Pennsylvania lowered her stacks approaching Wheeling with no bridge to lower them for. A derisive salute. A mob gathered on shore and pelted the packet with stones. (Mark Twain’s younger brother aboard the str Pennsylvania was scalded and died after the boilers exploded on 21 Jun 1858.
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The steamer list has been updated and upgraded. Each research trip to The National Archives uncovers more information. The steamer list is in alphabetical order by packet name. It can also be searched and sorted by Build Date and Build Location, Primary Owner and Build Date, etc., leading to interesting analysis. The link is GtownSBList 180806.
Like most family boats, there were several owners and masters during the lifetime of most vessels. The primary ownership, displayed in the following table, represents the primary owner according to the first Certificate of Enrollment of the Custom House in Pittsburgh, PA. Where the original owner is not a Georgetown family name, I have listed the Georgetown connection by providing the position, such as Master, Pilot, Clerk, etc. A link to the Certificate of Enrollment, if available, is provided via the packet name. It should also be noted that starting around the time of the Civil War, companies were established with shares distributed to the partners to limit the risk. It should also be noted that the Poe wives and sisters were owners of Poe family boats. For example, Martha Jane Poe, Thomas Washington Poe’s second wife, owned 2/16 of the str Clara Poe according to the Certificate of Enrollment in 1862. That was eight years before her husband whacked her in the head with an axe when the str Nick Wall was snagged on the Mississippi in Dec 1870.
The names on many of the hand-written Certificates of Enrollment are misspelled. Of course, the Georgetown Calhoon family is a prime example often listed with the more common spelling Calhoun. Suurprisinglyt, the name George Washington Ebert has been the most abused. The listings observed so far include: Geo Ebert, GW Ebert, Washington Ebert, and even George W Ebbert.
All Georgetown steamers, keelboats, tugs, and barges with a capacity of more than twenty tons had to registered with the Custom House at the Port of Pittsburgh after 1835. Before 1835, Pittsburgh was a region of the Custom House of New Orleans. The usual Cause of Surrender of the Certificates of Enrollment was:
(1) license expired,
(2) change in owners,
(3) change in property, such as adding a new deck
The counts for Georgetown currently stands at:
Steamers 105
Keelboats 36
Tugs 3
Barges 8
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GtownSB CivWarTimeline 171230 is an XCEL spreadsheet with major events associated with each steamboat and captain. The data can be sorted by date, steamer, and captain.
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Years before steamboats entered the inland waterways, ocean going brigs and sloops were built in the shipyards on the Ohio River. In the attached article, the brig St Clair was built in Marietta in 1801.
News clip of ocean going Ships built on the Ohio River
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For Georgetown the years between 1852-1858 were a time of speedy economic growth. River business prospered. The following table lists the partnership of owners over six years of one steamer, str Washington City, plying various inland rivers. Few Poe family packets survived as long.
The consistency of these findings taken from the Record Type 41 of the Certificates of Enrollment are unusual. Other Poe family steamboats changed ownership annually and were often bought and sold outside the family within three years. The following table lists the owners of the str Washington City from 1852-1857. Although no data was found for 1855 during this research trip, it should be remembered that in Apr 1855 Capt Joseph MC Calhoon died of cholera in Alton, IL. Despite dangerous high-water conditions Capt George Washington Ebert, a brother-in-law, clerk James Wilkins a brother-in-law, /pilot Jacob Poe a brother-in-law, and a skeleton crew of Georgetown relatives, steamed to St Louis to recover the body and return it for burial in Georgetown Cemetery. Proof that the str Washington City was actively working in 1855. The absence of data for 1855 is most unfortunately due to pages torn from the Enrollment and License book of records.
Cert of Enrollment for the str Washington City (The National Archives)
| 1852 | 1853 | 1854 | 1855 | 1856 | 1857 | |
| Richard Calhoon | ||||||
| Samuel Cadman | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | |
| George W Ebert | 3/16 M | 3/16 M | 3/16 M | 3/16 M | 3/16 M | |
| AB Gallatin | ||||||
| Samuel Moore | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | |
| Steel McMillen | ||||||
| John S McMillin | ||||||
| Adam Poe | ||||||
| Andrew Poe | ||||||
| George Poe | ||||||
| Jacob Poe | 3/16 | 3/16 | 3/16 | 3/16 | 3/16 | |
| Thomas W Poe | ||||||
| Samuel Smith | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | |
| Thomas Smith | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | |
| JT Stockdale | ||||||
| James Wilkins | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | 2/16 | |
In 1857,the town fielded a fleet of ten steamboats to work on all inland rivers as far as the lower Missouri River. Several keelboats were also launched by Georgetown rivermen. The following table lists the steamers 0f 1857 and the men who owned and commanded them.
Georgetown Packets in 1857
| Belfast | Belmont | Clifton | Grand Turk | John G Fremont | Metropolis | Neptune | Silver Wave | Wash City | |
| R Calhoon | 3/16 M | ||||||||
| James Diehl | 1/8 | 1/8 | |||||||
| GW Ebert | 3/16 M | 1/8 | 1/8 | 3/16 M | |||||
| AB Gallatin | 1/8 M | ||||||||
| Eliz McClure | 1/8 | ||||||||
| Steel McMillen | 3/32 | ||||||||
| JS McMillin | 13/16 M | ||||||||
| Adam Poe | 1/2 M | 3/8 M | |||||||
| Andrew Poe | 1/8 | ||||||||
| George Poe | 1/8 | 1/8 | 1/16 | ||||||
| Jacob Poe | 1/8 | 3/16 | 1/4 | 1/8 | 3/16 | 3/16 | |||
| Thomas Poe | 1/4 | 1/4 | 1/8 M | 1/8 | 1/4 | ||||
| Samuel Smith | 1/8 | ||||||||
| Thomas Smith | 1/8 | 1/8 | |||||||
| Alan Stockdale | 1/8 | ||||||||
| JT Stockdale | 3/8 M | ||||||||
| Samuel Trimble | 1/8 | ||||||||
| David Wilkins | 3/32 | ||||||||
| James Wilkins | 1/8 |
Notes:
(1) In an effort of complete disclosure, George Washington Ebert . The Poes and Samuel Trimble were my third great uncles, Elizabeth (Poe) McClure my third great aunt.
(2) The bold faces names in the table are the principle steamboat captains who built, piloted, and operated the boats on many rivers far from home – Georgetown. The names in lighter type are investors who did not work on the rivers.
(3) John Smith McMillin and Steel McMillen were brothers although the Custom House clerk spelled their last name differently on several enrollment certs.
(4) Samuel and Thomas Smith lived in the village opposite Georgetown on the Ohio River named Smiths Ferry. They operated a ferry which had served the two settlements since circa 1794.
(5) Samuel Cadman, Samuel Moore, and David and James Wilkins resided in Pittsburgh and Allegheny City.
(6) “M” in the fractional ownership cells indicates “Master” as listed on both the Enrollment and License forms.
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Enrollment and License Book for the Port of Pittsburgh 1856 (The National Archives)
Thinking Sunshine Superman lyrics while in DC today. Spent two days at The National Archives reviewing Enrollment and License data from the Port of Pittsburgh from 1852-1858. Stayed at the Swann House B&B in Dupont Circle and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a Greek restaurant named Kapnos. Bright and sunny and “we’ll do it in style”.
Several stories to tell. The disposition of the str Golden Gate has been revealed. The master, Capt Joseph MC Calhoon, died from cholera in Alton, IL in 1855. He tried to return to Georgetown. The Masons kept his body till it could be retrieved by Georgetown relatives. The four-page letter to his widow from the attorney is worth a read. Never revealed was the fate of his steamboat. Coming soon as time permits.
Discovered a few more facts about Capt John Smith McMillin.
Information is sometimes hard to come by. Record books are beautiful although some have been damaged and pages are missing. The fact that most of these remarkable books exist after one-hundred-sixty years is remarkable.
Damaged Page for Enrollment of unknown steamboat
More to come. Three-hundred plus images to process.
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