Archive for the ‘River Tales’ Category

Poes and Wyandots

Sunday, August 30th, 2020

A series of articles in the Hancock County Courier, Sep 1966, comprise the 14th rendition of the Poes battle with the Wyandots Indians along the shores of the Ohio River.  The author, Kathryn Minesinger, was the librarian at the Sweeney Memorial Library in New Cumberland, WV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Travel before Trains

Tuesday, April 28th, 2020

In  several previous posts, comparisons of the capabilities of steamboats and trains have been discussed.  This article will center on the different modes of travel in Beaver County roadways 200 years ago.  About that time steamboats could move freight and passengers more than 250 miles per day down river and about half the distance against the current.  By 1850 only 9,000 miles of railroads had been built.  Usually, the lines were short linking two points.  The Appalachian Mountains and river crossings were major obstacles for city to city connections.  The major development of railroads to the west took place between 1850-1890.

On roadways before 1850, there were five general classes of traffic: drovers with their herds, freight wagons, stagecoaches, single riders on horseback, and people on foot.

Cattle, hogs and turkeys were driven about 5 miles daily. Then the animals were turned to pasture.  Horses, generally tied four abreast, were driven in large number east much faster.  Fields near taverns along the route would be filled with live stock.  Today. it’ s hard to image the amount of livestock traffic that traveled over highways.  The three primary destinations for the drovers were Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York.   A register book of the Union Hotel in Bedford, PA verifies the amount of traffic.  According to the hotel register, on 8 Aug 1848, Henley, a drover from Ohio checked in with 125 head of cattle.  The following day AW Bryson of Mahoning Co, OH had 148 head of cattle.  On 22 Aug 1848, James Floyd of Beaver Co was “going east with six horses”.  [1]  The Union Hotel was one of many taverns and inns along the multiple routes east.

Freight wagons, often called Conestoga wagons because they were first built in Conestoga,  Lancaster Co, PA, were huge and numerous on the turnpikes in PA.  They could carry five or more tons of manufactured goods west. The large wagon returned east seldom empty often loaded with grains and other farm products and iron bars from the foundries.  The Conestoga wagons were fitted with a high canvass roofs and wide metal rimmed wheels.  Drawn by teams of four or six horses, a normal day’s travel was about fifteen miles.  Each driver was proud of his team.  Like packet deck hands, they were a rowdy group who made quite a scene at taverns with their blacksnake whips and vile oaths.

Stagecoaches could carry eight passengers inside and three seated on top with the drivers. On good roads the stages could travel eight to twelve miles per hour.  The four horse teams were changed about every twelve to fifteen miles.  On 31 Dec 1850, a news advertisement in the Bedford Enquirer listed a new stagecoach service from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. [2]  The service had ten luxurious stages that would complete the route in three days.

A single rider on horseback without changing rides would average about twenty miles per day.

Often families on foot would be seen walking westward seeking friends or relatives and a place to start a life.  A single man on foot could match the distance of horseback rider.  Families moved much slower.

At this time steamboats could transport hundreds of passengers and hundreds of tons of freight hundreds of miles along the riverways.

 

Reference.



[1]   Whisker, Vaughn E, Tales from the Allegheny Foothills, Vol IV. 1975.

[2]  Whisker, Vaughn E, Tales from the Allegheny Foothills, Vol III. 1975

 

 

 

Copyright © 2020 Francis W Nash
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No part of this website may be reproduced without permission in writing from the author.

 

Pilot Jacob Poe

Saturday, April 11th, 2020

Jacob Poe with Str Belmont Card (Anna L and John F Nash Collection)

Few steamboatmen traveled farther or as wide-ranging or on as many rivers as Capt Jacob Poe.  In 1837, Capt Jacob steamed to Olean, NY on the Allegheny River; in 1848 Chillicothe, OH on the Scioto River; in 1849 Ft Des Moines on the Des Moines River; in 1851 Warsaw MO on the Osage River; in 1854 Ft Riley on the Kansas River.  During the Civil War, Capt Jacob Poe was transporting troops and supplies on the Red River, White River, Yazoo River, and of course the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. After the Civil War he was on the furious upper Missouri River making several trips to Ft Benton in the Montana Territory.  He spent his life steaming on the sharp edge of a constantly moving American frontier.  Few steamboatmen are gifted to read the waters of one river, fewer exceed the scope of Jacob Poe’s travels.

From the details available, Capt Jacob Poe was often described as the pilot.  He seemed to favor work in the pilot house more than the packet  management position of the master or captain.   He preferred to read the waters rather than count the money.  He not only drove the boats and shared their ownership with his brothers, he often watched over the construction of new family boats.  No doubt his ideas were the foundation of the Poe favored mid-sized sternwheel design.

In 1837, Jacob Poe was hired for his first command – the captain and first pilot of the str Beaver No 2.  That same year he was the pilot of the str New Castle which was one of two boats ever that went up the Allegheny River to Olean, NY.

Jacob Poe’s last US Inspection Certificate was dated 1 Dec 1890.  It was his fifteenth masters license and thirty-second pilots license for the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers.  In total, fifty-three years working on the Ohio River as a steamboat pilot.  (The Steamboat Act of 1852 established in law for the first time, the license certification process for pilots, engineers, and vessels.)

The following table summarizes a few newsclips by date indicating that Jacob Poe was often employed as a pilot.  His son, George WE Poe, quit business school in Pittsburgh to serve the Union during the Civil War as a cub pilot.  After the Civil War, together the father and son team worked as pilots on some Poe family owned boats and other boats of business partners centered around Pittsburgh.  Without certain proof, Jacob Poe was assisting the development of his son’s career on the river.

 

Steamboat officer: Pilot Jacob Poe

Date Officer Steamer Name Destination Note
13 Nov 1855 Master Clifton Nashville

1

31 Oct 1864 Master Yorktown Cincinnati

2

25 Jan 1869 Pilot Sallie Louisville

3

01 May 1869 Pilot with son Argosy Cincinnati

3

20 Jan 1871 Pilot with son Glencoe New Orleans

3

23 Feb 1871 Pilot with son Silver Lake No4 Cincinnati

3

02 Mar 1871 Pilot with son Brill Cincinnati

3

09 Apr 1873 Pilot EH Dufee Ft Benton

3

18 May 1874 Pilot AJ Baker St Louis

2

15 Apr 1877 Pilot Carrie Brooks Zanesville

4

26 Nov 1878 Master John D Sully New Orleans

4

 
 

 

 

Notes:

1. The Pittsburgh Daily Post, p3

2. The Pittsburgh Daily Commercial, p4.

3. The Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette, p3.

4. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, p3.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2020 Francis W Nash
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Another 150th Anniversary

Saturday, July 20th, 2019

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, we should take a moment to honor the people who contributed to the expansion of our nation west.  One hundred years earlier in 1869, four sternwheel steamers from Georgetown were transporting settlers, miners, and supplies to the farthest reaches of the northwest – Ft Benton in the Montana Territory.  Nancy Ann Poe with her husband Capt George Washington Ebert in command of the str Mollie Ebert  penned her journal of the trip.  Fellow Georgetown man, Capt Thomas Stevenson Calhoon in command of the str Sallie  maintained a diary of his journey that same season.

Nancy Ann Poe Ebert Journal Segment 1 Front

Both of these historical documents are preserved in the museum collections of The Heinz History Center.

 

 

Copyright © 2019 Francis W Nash
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No part of this website may be reproduced without permission in writing from the author.

Mother Jones and Steamboats

Wednesday, May 1st, 2019

As May Day approaches I was thinking about Mother Jones, nee Mary G Harris.  An Irish immigrant, a school teacher, a seamstress, a labor organizer –  the “most dangerous woman in America” in 1902 are a few of her notable accomplishments.

Mary G Harris married George E Jones a member and organizer of the International Molders and Foundry Workers Union.  That union represented the workers who specialized in building and repairing steam engines.

In 1867 during an outbreak of yellow fever in Memphis, Mary G Harris lost her husband and four children, all under the age of five.  Mary returned to Chicago where she then lost everything, again, in the Great Fire of 1871.  She helped to rebuild the city which induced her into the labor movement.  She became known as Mother Jones to United Mine Worker Union strikers.  She believed that working men deserved a working wage.

PA Gov Tom Wolf in a recent fund raiser noted that 172 workers died on the job in PA in 2017.  He referenced Mother Jones as a notorious rabble-rousing labor organizer credited with the quote “We must pray for the dead, but fight like hell for the living.”.    Gov Wolf pledged to remember those workers lost and hold  employers who violate the law accountable.

We must also fight for the living by raising the minimum wage, supporting equal pay and health care for all,  and  making our workplaces safe.

 

 

Copyright © 2019 Francis W Nash

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No part of this website may be reproduced without permission in writing from the author.

 

Rising Tide

Sunday, March 10th, 2019

The book by John Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, is required reading.  The book provides an excellent explanation of the hydrology of the Mississippi River in flood conditions.  The river becomes an unpredictably violent, almost a living thing consuming everything in its path.    This catastrophe in 1927 was a struggle of man against nature, man against man, honor versus money, black and white clashes, and regional and national political conflicts.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2019 Francis W Nash

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No part of this website may be reproduced without permission in writing from the author.

 

 

 

MO River Anniversary

Monday, September 24th, 2018

 

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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Ocean Sailing Ships

Friday, May 18th, 2018

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

 

Copyright © 2018  Francis W Nash  All Rights Reserved
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Packet Ownership

Monday, March 12th, 2018

 

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)

Str Washington City

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Copyright@2018 FrancisWNash
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Tripped to DC

Friday, March 9th, 2018

 

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.  

 

Flyleaf for Enrollment and License Book 1856

 

Damaged Page for Enrollment of unknown steamboat

 

More to come.  Three-hundred plus images to process.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2018  Francis W Nash  All Rights Reserved
No part of this website may be reproduced without permission in writing from the author.