Ravenna, 22nd March 1849

 

Mr. Lyman C. Draper

            Philadelphia, Pa.

 

 

Dear Sir

 

            I owe an apology for being thus long in replying to your inquiries.  I delayed writing until I had an opportunity of seeing my oldest sister Catherine Harris to obtain information from her respecting dates. She, Catherine, says that she well recollects of hearing her Mother say that she, Catherine, was not quite nine months old when Father was wounded and brought home, and no hopes of his living.

 

            I am convinced that I was wrong in saying 1782.  I have my Father’s family record before me.  Catherine, the oldest child was born the 7th of October 1780, which would make it about the last of June 1781.  I recollect of hearing Father say there had been a great freshet in June and that the river was very high at the time of the fight.

 

            Respecting the name of the prisoner, I believe I am right.  Phillip Jackson has frequently been at Father’s since my recollection, but he was not the prisoner, he lives on Harmon’s Creek.  I believe it was Phillip’s father or uncle and that his name was William Jackson.

2nd, – The house the Indians attempted to enter, I believe, was Thomas Bays, and there at Bays the people had collected.

 

            The women and children were taken to a fort where Burgets Town now is, that night, which was some 4 miles off.

 

            3rd. – Inquiry respecting George Fulks I cannot now answer.  After peace was made with the Indians he came home I think to Raccoon Settlement in Beaver Co. Pa. but went back to the Indians and married a squaw.  He followed trading goods to the Indians for skins and fur.  He had a brother Williams Fulks that was also a prisoner for a short time; he has a son that is Justice of the Peace living near Calcutta, Columbianna Co. Ohio, I do not know his given name. 

 

            4th – I do not know what year my Father settled on Harmon’s Creek, – but I think it was, from the information I have, as soon as 1768 if not before that time.  John Crist was one of the men that first settled with him, and Andrew Rankin was the other first settler with him, they lived together and kept bachelor’s hall.  Neither of them was married at that time.

 

            Robert Canaday also lived with Father one year after Christ and Rankin left him.  Canaday made improvement to land near to my Father, he married a wife and went on his own land.  The Indians took Canaday and his wife and kept them about two years.  Canaday has a son Jacob now living in Green Township, Pa. Beaver Co.

 

            At my Father’s Andrew Poe the fort was built.  It consisted of half an acre of ground picketed four square, with a block house on each corner, and Father’s house was in the center.  In times of danger the inhabitants lived at the fort.  The block houses remained until I was 16 years old. 

 

With regards to the Indians coming to kill my Father or Uncle I know nothing.  I am very sure that my Father had no apprehension of them wanting to kill him.  When I was about seven years old, an Indian named White Eyes from Sandusky, said to be a noted warrior, came to my Father’s and stayed three days.  One of the days was Sabbath and Father got White Eyes to go to meeting with him which was about three miles off, but White Eyes did not stay long at the meeting.  He soon came back, and when Father and Mother came home he said people looked at him so that he did not like the meeting.  Several Indians at different times came to my Father’s since my recollection.  One named Enis Coon from Sandusky was there at two different times and stayed several days each time.  He, Enis Coon, knew about Father having the fight with big Foot and spoke about it to Father. 

 

            Father always used the Indians very kind when they came to see him, but I think did not apprehend any danger from them after peace was finally made. 

 

            As near I can ascertain, Andrew Poe settled on Harmon’s Creek in the spring of 1768, and Adam settled there in 1772.

 

            Adam Poe married in 1778, and Andrew was married to Elizabeth Rutan of Williamsport on the Monongahela, the 15 of January, 1780.

 

            That year the Indians were very troublesome to the inhabitants of Harmon’s Creek; they took six horses from Andrew that summer that he never got again, and I believe it was the summer of 1780 that they  took Robert Canaday and his wife prisoners.  That summer Andrew and Adam Poe took their wives into the settlement and came back themselves and worked their farms, and went on some expeditions as scouts into the Indian country, and in the beginning of winter brought their wives to Harmon’s Creek again. 

 

            After block houses were built on the Ohio River and their men stationed there to guard the frontier settlements, quite a number of persons and families settled in Green Township, Beaver Co. also lower down the river in Virginia, and the inhabitants lived secure. 

 

            I can not say what year, nor how long these stations were kept up, but after they were abandoned, the Indians came across the River and drove the inhabitants off about as far into the settlement as Harmon’s Creek.  The settlements were all vacuated for as long as two years or more.

 

            In the year 1784 my Father traded his farm on Harmon’s Creek to James Mathews for a settlement right which Mathews had to a tract of land near the Ohio River in Green Township that Mathews had lived on one year and was drove off by the Indians.  That year ’84 Father moved to that tract of land, and a number of people that had left their settlements moved back.

 

            Father had a fort built at his house, and I have not heard of any but one man killed by the Indians after Father moved there.  That was John Mc Cleary; he was killed about 70 rods from Father’s house whilst Father was at Harmon’s Creek harvesting.

 

            Harmon’s Creek was about 16 miles from where Father lived, and the Indians were not overtaken.  The Indians frequently came to that settlement after Father moved there.  At two different times Father, with a party of men followed them and killed some of them. 

 

My Father and Mother had eleven children, nine daughters and two sons.  The five oldest were girls; I was the sixth child, then my brother George; then four youngest were girls.  10 of us are still living. 

 

            I was born the 4th of April 1793.  I was drafted as a private, Infantry Co of Militia, for six months.  We rendezvoused at Pittsburg the 1st of October, 1812.  I was elected Orderly Sargent, our Captain David Strahan resigned, then Lieutenant Walker took command of the company.  When we got to Sandusky, our Ensign Wm Hartford got sick and was sent home.  Lieutenant Walker was killed by the Indians the 20th of Feb. about  three miles from Fort Meigs, where General Harrison’smy then lay, to which we were attached. 

 

            After Walker’s death I had command of the company until the 2nd of April, 1813, when we were discharged.  Walker was a son-in-law of Col. George Valandingham.  Major Valandingham lived, the last I heard from him, on Montures Run, Allegheny Co., Pa.  I have written to him and requested him to write to you.

 

            Andrew Poe never was a pensioner, Adam Poe died in September, 1840 at his son’ Andrew’s near Massillon, Ohio, Stark County.  Andrew now lives there.  Adam Poe was a pensioner for several years before he died.  Adam also has a son living in Georgetown, Beaver County, Pa., whose name is Thomas Poe. 

 

Respecting the Brady tradition, I cannot say from where it originated.  I live about 1 1/2 miles from Brady Lake, and about 3 miles from where it is said Brady leaped the Cuyahoga.  I have heard the same story told by many first settlers, and as far as I know, all believed it to be true.  The distance across the Cuyahoga, where it is supposed Brady leaped, is 29 feet from the surface of one bank to the other, but on the east side about five feet from the surface, rock projected about six feet over the River.

 

            On that projecting rock it is supposed Brady lit, which would make the leap to be 23 feet, with a five foot descent.  General Samuel D. Harris a few days since told me that he was preparing a corrected draft of the river and adjacent land.  He has surveyed all the land in that vicinity.  I will try to have him write soon; he feels interested in giving all the information that he can.

 

            Andrew Poe, my Father, never lived on any but two places since he was married; first at Harmon’s Creek, and last in Green Township where he died on the 15th of July 1823.

 

Adam Poe moved from Harmon’s Creek after peace with the Indians, (I do not know the year) to near the mouth of Little beaver on the north side of the Ohio River, about four miles from Father.  Neither of them ever lived nigher Little yellow Creek than about six or seven miles. 

 

            Thomas Poe, son of Adam Poe, is about ten years older than I am, and may recollect more of the particulars; his post address is George Town, Beaver County, Pa.

 

            My Father was a man of few words and never spoke of those things without being inquired of.  The time of year that my Father had the command of the Stations on the Ohio River, I cannot tell.  He had a company of men and drew.   US Muskets for them.  I recollect of seeing his muster roll. 

 

            Respecting Maj Vallandingham, I do not remember how long he was in the army.  It was on our way to Fort Meigs that I heard him relate the story of my father.  He, Vallandingham, was not with us when Lieut. Walker was killed.

 

            Another circumstance my sister says I was wrong in my statement to you, and I am inclined to think she is right.  She says that the Indians first attempted to get into Thomas Bays house where there were a number of men, after leaving Bays they went to Wm Jacksons and took him prisoner.  She was well acquainted with Phillip Jackson, that it was not him  but Wm Jackson that was the prisoner. 

 

            I regret that I have been so long writing to you.  And I am truly grateful to you for your noble effort to preserve the memory of those who have had so large a share of the hardships, privations, and sufferings which was endured by the first settlers in W. Pa.

 

                                    Yours with respect,

                                    Adam Poe

 

 

Mr Lyman C Draper

            Philadelphia.

 

Account of Adam Poe, Sr.  River Experiences
 written Georgetown, Penna. May 3, 1887

 

I was born in the village of New Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio on November 20, 1816.  Have not as early recollection as parties I have known.  When five years old, I recollect being put on a horse to ride behind my grandfather Adam Poe to Wayne County, Ohio but have not recollection of the journey and have no doubt but that I was well taken care of.  I have been told by parties that I was the idol among my father’s family.  I can remember a few happenings of the year I lived with him before my father moved out to the same place where the town of Congress now stands in Wayne County, Ohio. Father built a house for his family out of small logs and split flooring out of logs called puncheons and hewed them so as to level the floor.  When the heat of the summer set in we all took the flu.  As I was taken home, mother being a good nurse and well posted on the medicinal qualities of herbs growing in the woods, she brought us all through safely. 

 

The following winter, father hired a man to bring his family and household goods to Georgetown, which consisted of five children.  Later his family grew to ten children, five boys and five girls.  At this writing two of each  party are on the shores waiting until our change comes.  The spring following father and eldest brother (Andrew) got work with the farmers in the neighborhood.  There was not one dollar of money in sight.  They were paid in the products of the farm, which kept the inner and outer man on terrafirma and always able for allowances.

 

When moving back to Wayne County, I was left near my birthplace at my Grandfather’s on my mother’s side of the house.  Father came for me the June following and took me with him to lay a night line, was going to bait with worms.  (June 1823 when Adam was six years eight months of age)  Fishing with a night line was different to what it is now; put hooks on line, drop the line in the canoe and drop the staging over the side of the canoe, used a gourd for a buoy, and lifted the line every time they looked at it.  So while father was getting his line ready in the canoe, he told me to go to a tree he selected standing under the bank, where there was dry sand and to sand the worms.  He wished dry sand put in the vessel containing the worms, but I took them to the place he showed me, scratched a hole in the sand and buried the worms.  He crossed the river for his line and asked for the worms.  I told him they were on the other side of the river.  He was quite angry as he had to make two crossings for the worms.

 

About two years later, father agreed to go to Wheeling with his canoe, from our place a distance of fifty-six miles, for the sum of one dollar.  (1825 when Adam was eight years)  Nothing occurred that I can remember except a heavy rain and windstorm at the foot of Brown’s Island. We housed in a fisherman’s shanty till the storm passed over; that was six miles above Steubenville. Our diet consisted of Johnny cake and meat, as that was the kind of bread the inhabitants of Georgetown lived on, and it was really good when gotten up right.  I think if the rising generation lived a little more to that style, there would be less doctors’ bills to pay and people would live longer. t My mother was an artist in the way of getting it up right but her earthly career ended some years since, and she is now I trust reaping her reward for her many good deeds done on earth.  (Elizabeth Hephner b1786 – d 1864)  I feel rejoiced to know she lived to see prosperity in her family and could have had an easy life had she wished,  She raised five sons and five daughters to manhood and womanhood. 

 

We arrived in Wheeling the next day and lodged at Crowley’s Tavern, near the river at the upper end of the city wharf.  One instance fresh in my memory was a small boy about two years old coming to the river to look at father’s craft with the old inn keeper.  He was anxious to have him purchase it.  The boy was a little crosseyed and would take the Savior of the World’s full name in vain when coaxing his father to purchase the craft.  I will stop and think if Abe Crowley is still alive, he was schooled in a very bad element.  Keel boatmen and the rough element did a great deal of drinking at Crowley’s Inn.  A good story was told on Captain Stone’s going up through Merriman’s ripple where the channel runs close to the shore.  Captain Stone said to his passengers “There is a lame man going our way” and called out to him, “Will you come on aboard if I stop for you?”.  “Oh, no, I am in a hurry, thank you”.

 

The last remembrance I have of our canoe trip was the first night our of Wheeling.  I got so sleepy, I laid down in the bow of the canoe and went  to sleep.  On arriving at the upper end of Wellsburg, father landed and carried me out to a flat lying on the shore to get sleeping quarters for the night.  The reader will remember that a trip occupying nearly four days with a man and a boy, could not pay many hotel bills with one dollar, and they were not paid until the trip was performed.

 

The next trip I remember was a small raft of logs father had gathered up to take to Mr Murray’s saw mill at Steubenville, Ohio where they were beginning to build small steamboats hulls.  The recollection I have of the trip is father’s running on the Virginia side of Baker’s Island about one mile below Wellsville, Ohio.  Before the government built the dam at the head of the island, the shallow water was near the foot of the island and very swift.  The raft was built of logs in the river.  Some of the logs were large and some small and all were round.  When the large logs began to come in contact with the bottom of the river, they rolled under the small ones.  It was a lively time for father and I to keep from getting between the logs and getting crushed or drowned, as David Crockett said of the wagon getting away from the driver or getting out of his control.  Going down the Allegheny Mountains he was a passenger in a wagon, it being loaded with flour.  He said a rat could hardly live, let alone a man.  I tell you a fish would have done some good dodging had it been mixed up with father’s logs.  I have no remembrance of the trip, only I suppose we rafted them over and took tem to Steubenville.

 

The next boating was on a raft of hoop poles.  I was about nine years old.  We took it to Moundsville, West Virginia.  One incident I will never forget.  Father walked home and I trotted after him.  When we arrived at the head of the narrows above Kate’s rock, father stopped and said to me, “I will find the place where Captain foreman with his 21 men were buried; waylaid and murdered by the Indians.”  There was a large quantity of beads found in the path; was supposed the party that buried them to belong to the Indians.  Grandfather was Captain of the fort below the mouth of Yellow Creek.  He was called to help bury the dead.  It was a long distance to go to a funeral, but Grandfather had a commission from the government and had to go when called upon.  The distance from Yellow Creek is 56 miles.  Remember nothing more of that trip.

 

About 1824 or 1825 there was a pair of French Creek flat boats at our village.  Size of the boats 80 feet long by 16 feet wide, made large at that time for transporting coal to the south.  My father, Thomas Poe, Sr. hired as a hand to go to Cincinnati at 50 cents per day.  There being a sudden rise in the river, boats floated to Cincinnati in four days and nights; so father had two dollars  wages coming to him, with four dollars back pay.  Steamboat passage was scarce at that time.  If he had struck a boat it would have cost him about $6.00 and would have been ordered around like a dog.  At that date boats only burned wood, and it had to be carried often a great distance.  Father was well posted with the nearest directions across the State of Ohio, as he had once been employed as a pack-horse for John Beaver and Joseph Larwill in Laying out the State, or the eastern part of the state.  Father was a good woodman and could tell the direction he wanted to go by the moss on the trees, as moss grows on the north side.  He arrived home in about ten days without having spent very much money out of the big pile he left Cincinnati with.

 

In those days it was the custom in our neighborhood to get your wheat ground and ship it on one of the keel boats that ran in that trade. Most of the farmers were good poling hands.  On my first trip I was not big enough to cook , and before starting procured a broken pole and got it rigged up for service, concluding to be a pole hand.  I could reach as low as the old hands, and had no trouble until going up the smooth rock shute at Montgomery’s Island, six miles below Beaver, Penna.  My pole would not reach and in getting down on it the pole slipped and sent me to the bottom.  An old farmer caught me in time to keep the turtles from eating me.

 

In the fall of 1834 father was in Pittsburgh, the river was very low.  One of the Beaver County farmers bought an old boat and hired another and headed the three boats for Wheeling and intermediate landings.  The farmer was sharp enough to collect most of the freight bills and left the boats to the care of father, so father bought an old horse to tow up the empty boats,  came to our boat at Warren, Ohio and found it laying at the bottom of the river.  I said to father, “Better leave the old boat and go on with two” but father became offended at my words.  He was feeling rich at the time and handed me $3.00 in silver.  I dashed them to the floor.  Some of the hired hands present gathered them up and forced them on me, as I would have went off with nothing.  I saw a steamboat coming up the river  and I hailed her, and with that purpose in mind, chased her to Beach Bottom where she came close enough to send a yawl for me.  I got home the next morning.  Mother was sorry I had left father, as she knew I was important help to him.

 

My two older brothers came the next day from Pittsburgh with their boats headed for Zanesville.  Mother coaxed them to take me along.  When I got home father had yielded enough to let mother coax me back to help him.  I helped him part of the winter and also bought one of his boats.

 

He laid up the winter at Steubenville.  About January, there came an open river.  I took a crew of hands from our place, borrowed five dollars from my two older brothers to provision the boat for the trip.  James Means furnished me with two hundred barrels of flour for my first load.  I got up as far as  Georgetown (my native home) where I found the river to be frozen up.  I hired a sled and hauled my goods to a warehouse.  When spring came I loaded up again.  I painted the boat over and named her Victory, as I started out to gain a victory or die in the attempt.  My first freight trip netted me $50.25.  There came a strong west wind and we sailed almost all the way to Pittsburgh.  I paid my hired help 50 cents per day; five days were required for the whole trip.  I cleared about $25.00. 

 

Arriving at the city, I paid off all but one hand and the cook.  I got a load of salt of blooms for the Iron Mill above Wheeling, and then went to Wellsburg, West Virginia.  Called on Farr and Curran who shipped a great deal of flour to Pittsburgh, and when they learned my name, I certainly was their boy. 

 

They gave me three loads in succession.  When I returned they seemed to take a great interest in my welfare because of my grandfather’s history fighting the Indians.  Philip Dodridge, who penned the first history, was a Wellsburg man.  I ran the Victory that season.  I sold my boat to some trading parties to load for the south.  I found the only chance for me was to hire out on a steamboat and learn something that would pay me. 

 

I hired on the first steamer Beaver, built by Charles Stone to tow freight and carry daylight passengers from Beaver Falls to Pittsburgh.  The boat was about worn out.  George M Horton to command of her and extended her trips to Wellsville, Ohio.  Was running on the south side of the river 16 miles below Pittsburgh when the boat picked up a snag, broke through the hull and ended up through the forecastle.  The boat sank in less than three minutes and had sunk up to the hurricane deck.  The owners wrecked her. 

 

The owners of Beaver #2 put her in the Allegheny River trade.  As time passed, the Beaver and Pittsburgh trade played out.  They put Jacob Poe on as her Captain.  At that date there was but two Allegheny steamboat pilots.  The steamer New Castle was about the first boat to make a trade in te Allegheny River from Pittsburgh to Venango County, Penna.  Brother Jacob Poe acted as Captain and First Pilot and hired me as an assistant until we got as far as Kittanning.  We heard of a raft pilot there and got him on board.  Going up the river, he knew little more than ourselves, particularly at night, but was well posted downstream as he had only floated rafts from the head of navigation to the City of Pittsburgh.  After as few trips, James Dougherty got to drinking so much he became a nuisance on the boat and my brother paid him off and discharged him.  We were going smoothly when an accident happened.

 

The boat was supplied with cylinderboilers,30 feet long, 18 inches in diameter, five doors about midship of the boat, chimneys forward same as a fine paddler.  About Montgomery Falls, the engineer Robert Watterson turned a throttle valve on the boat in the river, lost sight of the water in the boilers.  He set a fireman to removing a pile of coal alongside the boilers to find the check valve.  I was off duty at the time, not sleeping very sound on account of it.   I was immediately over the boilers when I heard a noise like packing blowing out of a cylinder, and heard three men scream violently.  The boilers had become about dry and were red hot; the steam had burst a hole in the bottom of the boiler and escaped downward, badly scalding the three firemen.  If there had been much water in the boilers the firemen would have been killed at once.

 

Robert Watterson was employed by the same company and followed the river till he saved money enough to purchase a good farm in Beaver County.  The owners of the Beaver repaired her after getting her towed down to the city and loaded her and her two keelboats for Zanesville with Captain John May, an old veteran steamboat man, in command.  Below the locks at Duncan’s Falls the boat got tangled in the ferry rope and the captain had to cut it.  The boat could not pass through the locks, they being too short, so the freight was taken off the steamboat and loaded on the two keel boats.  Captain May sent brother Jacob and myself, we being experienced keel boatmen, to take the boats up to Zanesville, a distance of 90miles.  The keelboats were loaded so deep that we were forced to load the boats yawl, and tow it along the dam at Taylorville locks.  The locksare12 feet high, but there was a considerable break in them.  We concluded not to lock the empty boat as we were afraid the ferryman might capture it for cutting his rope, so we concluded to jump the dam.  I guess if we could have stopped when we neared the dam we would have risked the locks.  It was the merriest jump I ever took, all hands sat down and held on to something. 

 

About 1834 I shipped on the Steubenville packet boat.  She had three small keel boats.  Left one at Steubenville and one at Pittsburgh.  This boat was built in East Liverpool, Ohio.  She was open from forecastle to transom, had five cylinder boilers 20 feet long and 18 inches in diameter, fired at the midship of boat and was very hot; came out with Captain Dick Huston.  Afterwards the Steubenville owners put Joseph Filson in charge.  She had not power enough to comply with the trade and was sold. 

 

I shipped on the steamer New Lisbon running between Wellsville, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Penna. carrying daylight passengers and towing keelboats all the time, leaving one at Pittsburgh and one at Wellsville.  It was the custom for the deck hands on those small packet boats to dine in the cabin, but Captain Hamilton Smith began to feel rather proud and had a board for the two deck hands.  I did not answer the call and, of course, got no dinner.  Captain Smith came to me for an excuse and I told him I did not wish to break the rules; that he could get plenty of men to dine below, as I was only staging in short trade on account of the fare and I wished my money as I was going to quit the boat at Georgetown.  I had loaned the boat some money to start out on and had some wages coming to me.  The boat did not have enough cash on hand to pay me until she would return from Wellsville.  I ate in the cabin the balance of the trip back to the city. 

 

When I got to Pittsburgh I found a steamer called the Coquette loading for Lafayette about the head of navigation on the Wabash River.  The boat was owned by Aaron Hart, and in after years he became one of my river friends.  ‘He was a good man, I shall never forget him’.  I shipped as a deck hand on her.  At that time it was thought that a party coming off the Ocean or Lakes was better fitted to command or mate a steamer on the Ohio River.  Captain Hart put a Captain on the Coquette, a fellow (I will not call him a man as I think it requires certain qualifications to make a man).  His name was Fennel and he hailed from Lake Erie and had his own mare along from the same place. 

 

After going to work on that boat, the mate told me to go back to the after scuttle and get a selvage.  I went back to the little hatch, but I did not know what a selvage was by that name.  I did not want to lose my standing as a boatman, so I told him I couldn’t find it.  The selvage was made of tarred rope or spun yarn and was used to loop over the head of the spar to push the boat away from the wharf.  A selvage would not answer that purpose at a wharf in the city as the wharf was crowded with large heavy boats and we had to use large spars and blocks and for a selvage we used a strong sea grass rope to fasten the block to the head of a spar. 

 

The boat left Pittsburgh with John D Mackall and William Casey as pilots, as they were old keel boat men; they knew the river better by day than at night.  Mackall had no confidence in himself, and would send for me to look out for the head of islands, as he was from our village and well acquainted with me.  That trip was one of the hardest trials of suffering of my life.  The boat was narrow and having some deck load it was hard to keep her fair on her bottom as it was stormy March weather.  The boat had 1000 lbs. of chain on a four wheeled truck which my partner and myself had to stand by and haul to the high side of the boat.  We were not allowed to the fire doors to warm.  The Captain took one look at the boat’s leads and drove a spike through the line into the jackstaff as high as he could reach, to serve as a plumb line, and gave us orders to stand by and keep the boat trim by it.

 

Nothing unusual happened until arriving at Louisville.  Mackall at the wheel rounded the boat into the mouth of Bear Brass Creek.  I suppose he was scared, as it was night, and never stopped theh engines until the boat lifted herself nearly dry in the mud at the mouth of the creek and came very near running into a produce boat.  The mate set a spar and put all the strain on it that the guards on the boat would stand.  It was customary at that time for boats to carry very large hawsers, to hawser-out at hawser hole at the stern of the boat.  Nothing out of the usual order of steamboating happened until we reached the mouth of the Wabash River except hard work for us deck hands.

 

In due time we arrived at Lafayette and got all the freight out. The Captain got a few hundred barrels of flour back.  All of us deck hands were entirely worn out and we told the Captain we were not able to work anymore.  He showed some humanity by telling us  he would get some laborers to put it on the boat, which he did, and we stowed it away.

 

Nothing out of the regular order happened on the return trip until one night as the boat was making a very short turn, the chain wagon took a start from the high side of the boat and ran under the old-fashioned rail, which was almost 18 inches high, and went overboard as the chain was passed out of the hawser hole and back to the anchor. The chain was safe.  We got it to the capstan and hoisted it back on board.  We laughed, but our laughing was turned to sorrow for we had to use a two wheeled truck the balance of the trip, which was very hard work.  After getting the chain o n board, the boat landed and we had to carry wood from off the bank all night and put it in the hold.  The pilots did not wish to run at night.  Wood was cheap on the Wabash and it only kept us deck hands in steady work to bring it up to the firemen. 

 

Now I am nearing the point where I saw the brute acted in full force.  Early Sunday morning we took a wood boat in tow; it had about a dozen darkies on board.  At Caseyville, Kentucky when the boat came up near the town and was in the act of letting the wood boat loose; one of the colored men as ked the mate if he was going to land, and the mate said yes.  The darkie jumped aboard.  The boat started to cross over to the Indiana shore and the colored man began to cry and was in great distress.  The boat kept on going up the river.  Henry Sutton, a pilot that we got in Louisville, came down on the forecastle and took a rope’s end and whipped him unmercifully.  Then Captain Fennel exhausted his strength on him and tied his hands behind his back and tied him to the capstan, and there he stood till evening.  When the boat landed at Bradenburg, they put him in jail.  I stoodup for him like a man although I was only a boy, and contended that the mate told him before he jumped out of the wood boat that he was going to land in town.  I think this trip ended Captain Fennel’s boating on the Ohio River.  I suppose he went back to Lake Erie where he could play sailor on a small scale.

 

I afterwards made a trip on a pair of coal boats from Pittsburgh to Louisville late in the fall.  Mackall was pilot and I was a hand.  We took passage at Louisville to return home on the deck of the steamer Ontario.  We got up the river as far as Letant Falls, about midway between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.  On account of floating ice, the boat could not stem the falls.  On Monday morning we left the boat at Graham Staion,200miles from our homes, and started out to try the red limestone mud.  It froze and thawed most of the time during the trip home.  We struck the Ohio River again at the foot of Blenerhasset Island and followed the river the balance of our journey Going through Belpre settlement, I was taken with a pain in my right hip joint.  I wanted Mackall to go on and leave me, but he would not, and instead would urge me to stand up to the work.  Mackall was a very good traveling companion.  We averaged about 35 miles per day.  I arrived home on Saturday evening, having made the trip in six days.

 

I afterwards made a trip from Pittsburgh to Louisville on the steamer Norfolk.  Nothing out of usual order happened on this trip except hard work, as boats in those days had to be washed and scrubbed every morning from hurricane deck to forecastle and the water had to be drawn from the river in buckets.  William Leonard was pilot; he afterwards piloted boats from St Louis to New Orleans. 

 

My next trip as deck hand was from Pittsburgh to St Louis on the steamer Dolphin commanded by Captain Carmack, who was a perfect gentleman.  William McDonald was the mate, a very clever man he was.  Everyman had to be at his post.  McDonald soon afterward became a pilot in the Pittsburgh to Cincinnati trade.  At the falls there was only six feet of water, and as the boat drew more than that she began to roll and tumble over the rocks long before she came to the worst part of the channel.  Looking forward we could see the waves running high.  I thought she would not go over without sinking.  I was born with the gift of taking danger coolly and to take the best plan fro the preservation of my own life.  I was  standing near the mate on the forecastle.  At every roll of the boat he would swear a big oath, and as I watched his face I could see that he was alarmed, so I spoke to my pardner Thomas Madden that there was danger.  A lot of gangplanks were lying by the guards. I got Thomas to take one end of a plank and I took the other, thinking that if the boat did sink, that plank would carry us ashore.  When the boat got over the falls, the mate found that the braces that hold the cabin up over the boilers all removed from their places.  At that time there were timbers across the boilers, and short posts were used to hold the cabin off the boilers.

 

Nothing occurred until one night another party came on board that was not recorded among the boat’s list of passengers.  It was mixed up among a large family that was going west, and was in-charge of a daughter and a son-in-law.  Everything went alright until the boat arrived in St Louis.  There was a large pile on the forecastle about 15 feet high.  As soon as the boat was fastened to the wharf, the mate told us to carry the lumber ashore.  It was raining hard but there was no chance to get out of it.  Reader — “Think of a man going to his bed when he only had a pine board to lay on, with scarcely any covering, and the water dripping from the clothes, with no fire and nothing to dry them except the heat from his body’. 

 

In 1836 keel boating was good, and I got a boat built. I called her the Brazil #4 and run her in the Wheeling trade.  The last low water trip in the fall,  I got good prices and got all the dry goods I could carry in the boat.  The tonnage of boats then was about 50 tons.  I could not get a crew of hands sufficient to handle the boat and at Racoon bar, below Beaver, she got badly aground.  Early in the morning, myself and one man waded ashore and at Two-mile Ferry we high a lighter.  It took nearly all day to get the boat afloat; it rained hard most of the time.  We started out near evening, the wind commenced to blow from the west and it began to get cold.  We beat against the wind until we came to a small house at the head of Montgomery Island where we stopped for shelter and to get our clothing dry.  I stood at the helm until I was chilled to the heart.  They had a large wood fire where we warmed ourselves and it seemed the happiest moment of my life.  It is necessary for one to suffer to appreciate real comfort.  The next trouble we had was at the foot of Babbs Island above East Liverpool.  There came a snow storm which drove the boat out of the channel and she stuck badly on a rock.  The hands got into the river and tried to pry her off.  When we got to Wheeling, my brother came down the river with the old steamer Beaver.  As she was a light tow boat he hired my boat.  I cleared $200.00 on my trip.  I kept my boat under charter until winter and then closed her out. 

 

About 1837 my brother and myself had a keel boat for low water in the Wheeling trade.  In the latter part of the summer I purchased a quarter section of land in Missouri.  My brother said he would take care of our interests in the boat so I started out to find my land. I could think of no better way, so I hired out on one of the large keel boats that carried dry goods to Louisville.  At Louisville I found the steamer Massillon going to St Louis.  I took deck passage and had a good time as I fell in with some Kentuckians who were going west to look for land.  The boat was crowded with passengers, both in the cabin and on deck.  John Day was Captain and Alexander Forsyth, his old keel boat clerk, was mate.  Forsyth afterward pushed a deckhand overboard into the canal at Louisville.  The man was drowned.  Forsyth went up to his room and put on a broad brim hat and walked off the boat and escaped to Pittsburgh.  He was never punished for the crime.  He afterward married and bought a few acres of land in Beaver County at the head of Crow’s Island.  Forsyth was Captain Day’s right hand man as Day could not read and would have to ask the name of boats that were passing.

 

At St Louis I found a small boat bound for the Missouri River, commanded by Captain Kyser, an old veteran on that river, who had a boat called the Shawnee.  The water was too low for her and he chartered a lighter boat called the Izora.  I took passage on this boat.  As usual, the boat laid up every night to clean te boilers, as a mud valves were not used then.  My destination was Glasgow, Missouri.  I showed my  patent for my land and was directed to go seven miles back in the country and call on Esquire Bradford, who could give me all the information about my land, as he was an old surveyor.  I stayed with him that night and found the land almost joined his, and also it had been sold for taxes.  Next day I went to Keysville, the county seat, but got no information as to who owned the tax title to my land.  I arrived back at Esquire Bradford’s the same evening.  The squire had no wife, lived in a log cabin and had an old colored women keeping house for him.  He had plenty of bacon and honey and she made corn bread.  Next day the squire surveyed my land, got two men to carry chain, and another old man came down to see it done, and in talking with me said, “That the squire was a good man, and if it was not for the family of a quarter blood children that he was raising by a yellow woman who lived on his farm in another house, he could be elected to any office in the county.”  I had to back to Jefferson City to find out who owned the tax title to my land.  I walked to Glasgow and took a stage to Fulton, the latter place being 20 miles from Jefferson City, which was a distance I had to walk, as there was no conveyance.  I had to cross Howard and Boone counties.  A gentleman pointed out to me the place where Daniel Boone lived and died.

 

About night I came to a farm house.  A man and his wife were the only occupants.  They took me in and treated me kindly.  I was stills even miles from Jefferson City, which I reached the next day.  I got my business done and got ready for the next steamer that came down, which was the Zora.  The mate took the boat across the river, and while at dinner, the sand washed out from under the boat.  Every man was at his post.  The pilot discovered that the channel had gone to the west side of the river.  While running down a small channel, the pilot saw a pile of logs ahead and stopped the engines.  The boat got crosswise in the channel and ran up on the pile of logs until the pipes that took water for the boilers came out of the water.  No water could be got into the boilers.  The only way the boat could begot off was to run a hawser ashore.  They soon pulled the boat off and we got to St Louis alright. At St Louis I hired out as a deck hand on a steamboat called the Maine, bound for Cincinnati.  All went well until we got to Flint Island where the boat got aground.  We finally got the boat freed and continued up river.  Finally arrived home without further event.

 

In that summer of 1840 I shipped as a mate on the steamboat Orleans.  She ran between Pittsburgh and Louisville.  R. S. Langham was captain, Hart Darragh clerk, Monroe and William Hart engineers, and Charles Rankin and Benjamin Wilson were pilots.  The boat did not answer her helm very well and the pilots missed the channel often, and when the boat got aground I had to spar her off with an old fashioned hand capstan.  The Orleans was the first boat that had a pump called a ‘doctor’ was used on.  It was used for supplying the boilers with water when the engines were not running in side-wheeled boats.  Stern-wheeled boats were better off as they could uncouple the engines and pump water into the boilers whenever it was necessary to do so.  The doctor was an oscillating cylinder with a flywheel about four feet in diameter and would very often stop of its own accord and we would have to lift it over center to get it started again.  About the same day the Vicksburg was so perfectly blown away, a storm struck the Orleans as she was nearing the Kentucky shore at the 12-mile Island above Louisville.  She headed for the Indiana shore, and as the boat was light, she listed until the upper guards were under water.  The pilot did not stop the engines until she ran against the bank and forced herself between two tree so tight we had to cut one of them in order to get the boat loose after the storm has blown over.

 

The same fall my brother and myself bought a small keel boat and loaded it with goods for the Forkadeer River.  As pilot, I was the only one who had been as far down the Ohio River as Cairo. We bought a book called the “Western Pilot” and ran by it as well we could. Got near where the Forkadeer empties into the Mississippi.  We landed on the Arkansas side and made inquiry as to how far it was to Hale’s Point.  Had hard work getting up the Forkadeer River, first threer days saw no person on the shores.  First landing was at the Widow Ferral’s Ferry five miles from Dyersburg.  Done some trading with the Dyersburg merchants.  We went up the river to Chestnut Bluff where we put our goods in a house and sold our keelboat for $100 to a noted gambler.  After he gave us a $50.00 note, brother and Potts started home.  When they got to Louisville, the note was pronounced counterfeit and they returned it to me by mail.  I had allowed him to take the boat down to Widow’s Ferry, and he had promised by a certain time to pay the other $50.00, so when the counterfeit note came to hand, I started for the ferry in haste. I walked ten miles in 2hours and a half, but thet boat of the gambler and widow and family were out of my reach.  Some parties thought they had gone to the White River, Arkansas.  I got some colored men to hew me out some gunwales and I had saved some pine boards out of the keel boat and I built a small flat to carry our household goods to the Mississippi River; got passage on the Helen Kirkman bound for Nashville; had to get off at Smithland; got passage on the Scotia bound for Louisville; took passage to Cincinnati on the mail boat Ben Franklin.  At Cincinnati took passage on the Richman  and stopped at East Liverpool and walked to Georgetown where I resided.

 

That same spring, my three br others and myself bought the old towboat that Falston (1837) had.  Two keelboats that we used for freight furnished the cabins for passengers.   The fall we built engines for her.  Three years later I built the steamer Financier (1845) for the purpose of carrying freight and passengers in low water between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.  Afterward sold her to Captain William Kountz.

 

Then I ran the Cinderella (1847) four months and cleared eight thousand dollars. I then sold my half of the boat, quit the river and tried farming, but found it an uphill business.  I then built Financier #2 (1850) and ran her for three years; built the Royal Arch and sold her, and then built the steamer Ella (1854).  The railroads had spoiled the low water business between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, but the rates were high for freight from Cincinnati to St Louis.  I left Pittsburgh without any freight to run between Cincinnati and St Louis.  Got as far down as Coxe’s ripple near Wellsburg, West Virginia; got aground and gave it up for about a month, then there came a heavy rain that raised the river at that point and floated the boat off the bar.  I gathered up part of a crew and started down the river.  The boat rubbed the river bottom through every ripple until we got to Blennerhassot Island; there was so much sand washed up on the  bar at the foot of the island that there was six inches less water than the boat drew.  I hired a man with oxen and scraped and dug a channel through the bar and got to Cincinnati all-right, got plenty of freight and passengers for St Louis at high prices.  We took on all the freight we could carry.. 

 

Nothing out of the usual order of boating in low water occurred until we arrived at Paducah, where we took on board six southern gentlemen who bore the title of Doctor and whose destination was New York.  They got off a heavy boat on account of low water.  They had to return by way of St Louis. Their business was to negotiate for the building of the railroad thru the South, having in view the transportation of soldiers should the country be assailed. 

 

The first night after passing Paducah, another passenger arrived on board.  The passengers told Mr Wilder and his wife that they must name him after the Captain, so the little stranger was named Adam Poe Wilder.  All went well and we landed Adam and mother about eight miles below St Louis.  I have never seen nor heard from Adam since. 

 

The next spring (1855) I took a load of freight and passengers on the Ella for the upper Missouri (should read upper Mississippi), destination Galena and Dubuque.  At Evansville, we took on a tramp who had but $1.50.  The clerk let him help the cooks for the balance of his passage.  Having no cargo to put out at St Louis, we landed at the upper end of the wharf, and as the bank was very full, the current was running pretty strong.  While taking on our pilots and stores, a lady let an infant child fall from her arms into the river.  The brave old tramp jumped into the water and caught the child before it sank.  I heard the racket in time to see him make the wharf some ten feet above two barges that were moored below our boat where he and the child were pulled out of the river alright.

 

Nothing else out of the usual order occurred until we arrived at Keokuk where we had to take out some 200 tons of freight to lighten our boat so we could get her over the rapids.  Mr Hines furnished lighter boats and towed them over the rapids with his light towboat.  At Montrose I was told that the tramp and another deck passenger had died while crossing the rapids.  At Montrose we applied for permission to bury them but the authorities would not allow it, thinking they had died of cholera.  Laborers would not help us reload our freight from the lighters, and even the thieves for which Montrose was noted, did not make their appearance. The carpenter made two rough boxes and we put them in and took them over to a low and buried them.  In overhauling the tramp’s baggage, it was found that he was on his way to visit his sister at ??manch, Iowa to which point his baggage was sent together with an account of his death.  

 

Built the Belfast #2 and ran her one year on the Wabash River and up to Galena and Dubuque; she was a success.  Sold her and built the Neptune (1857), ran her for about four years.  She had many misfortunes and was not a success.  Sold her at the breaking out of the Rebellion, and followed piloting while the war lasted.  After the war was over, I bought the stern-wheeled steamer America and lost money on her.  Ran her one year and sold her.  Laid still for awhile, then built a light boat and called her after the great Wyandotte chief Bigfoot (1875). A party from Florida wanted to buy one-half.  I took his note for $5000 which proved to be worth the paper on which they were written.  We loaded the boat for New Orleans, arrived there and discharged   our cargo and fitted our boat to stand the storms of the gulf by having a pair of large braces out under the cabin floor and six pairs of rope twisters hawsered around the hull and roof chimneys cut off at the top of the boat, and boilers twisted down to the hull. 

 

It was about eighty miles from the mouth of the Mississippi to Chandeliers Island.  We left the Mississippi early in the morning and about three o’clock the pilot said there was a storm approaching and told us to get up all the steam we could, or we might get caught where we could not get anchorage. I had three barrels of oil on board for the boat’s use.  I drew oil in a bucket and oiled the coal to help her make steam.  When we reached the mouth of what is called Mississippi Sound, about seven miles from Chandeliers, the old pilot came downstairs and said “We are all safe now” and dropped the lead over and found five fathoms of water,.  Not over five minutes later the storm struck us.  We had hired a very large anchor at New Orleans.  We bent on the hawser and the boat drifted so fast that it was with great difficulty that we got a turn on the bits.  We also cast the boat’s anchor, and took comforts from the beds and wrapped them around the hawsers for fear they would get chafed rubbing over the bulwarks.  We lay there 60 hours. If the cables had parted, the boat would not have lived five minutes.  The old pilot, the engineer and the pilot’s son had our large yawl boat provisioned and an axe in it; the axe to be used no doubt in keeping other out.  They had the Irish chambermaid seated on the cabin floor all the first night; it was almost impossible to keep on your feet.  I was forced to sell out at a loss of about $10,000. Went home in very low spirits.  I am still living (1887) and feel satisfied, but feel like General Grant when he saw the child in the river ‘I wish to see the outcome of my history’.

 

The last trip I made on the river was on the steamer Annie Roberts, Captain Alaback commander.  He landed his boat at Georgetown.  I was at the river repairing a skiff. The captain was not feeling very well, he wanted someone to assist him at the wheel. When we reached Louisville, Kentucky a number of my old acquaintances came on board.  I did not do the captain as much good on our upward trip, having taken a felon on my thumb.

 

                                                                        Adam Poe, Sr

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2010 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved

While the steamer Katie Stockdale was being built in Nov 1877, Thomas Stevenson Calhoon and Jackman Taylor Stockdale organized the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line.   The officers of the line were Jackman T Stockdale (Superintendent with offices in Pittsburgh), James A Henderson (Steamboat agent with offices in Pittsburgh), Charles M Fairman (Steamboat Agent with offices in Cincinnati).  Thomas Stevenson Calhoon was the Commander of the Katie Stockdale. [1]

 

 

Confusion clouds the original name of the packet line.  The name on a letterhead found on correspondence dated Nov 1878 was the Pittsburgh, Wheeling, & Cincinnati Packet Line.  Later letterheads eliminated Wheeling as a destination of the line name.  The name was the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line.  Often this line is called the “second” Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line.  The “first” Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line had been established in 1842 by William Thaw, Thomas Shields Clarke and others.  At that time, William Thaw also had interests in western PA canal transportation.  Later he was associated with the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads (PRRs) western lines.  The “first” Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line faded from existence before the Civil War. [2]

 

In Nov 1878 the nation was beginning to recover from the Long Depression which started with the Panic of 1873.  One of the causes of the severe nationwide economic decline was the extreme overbuilding of the nation’s railway system.  The post Civil War period was one of unregulated growth with the government playing no role in curbing banking and manufacturing abuses.  In addition to the ruined fortunes of many American families, it was also the origin of bitter animosity between workers and banking and business leaders.   This financial depression marked with an exclamation point the second term of Grant’s Presidency. [3]  It was in this unquiet atmosphere, that the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line was organized.  The packets comprising the first fleet follow: [4]

Fleet in 1879

Packet	Depart Pittsburgh	Depart Cincinnati
Katie Stockdale	Mon	Thu
Emma Graham	Wed	Sat
Granite State	Fri	Sun
Buckeye State
WP Thompson

 

A round trip fare, Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, for one passenger was $10.  The Katie Stockdale, Emma Graham, WP Thompson, and Buckeye State were new luxurious boats giving the line a good start.  The Katie Stockdalewas the first boat built expressly for the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line.  In about 1880, the steamer St Lawrence joined the line.

 

In 1883, the letterhead for the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line listed four boats. [5]

 

 

 Fleet in 1883

Packet	Depart Pittsburgh	Depart Cincinnati
Katie Stockdale	Mon	Thu
Emma Graham	Wed	Sat
Scotia	Fri	Mon
Hudson	Sun	Wed

 

The Katie Stockdale commanded by Thomas Stevenson Calhoon led the relief effort for the victims of the Flood of 1884.   That story in detail is found in The Mercy Mission.

 

In 1886, the fleet included: [6]

Fleet in 1886

Packet	Captain	Clerk
Katie Stockdale	TS Calhoon	Charles W Knox
Scotia	George W Rowley	Robert H Kerr
Hudson	JF Ellison	AJ Slaven

 

 

On 8 Jun 1887, Capt Jackman T Stockdale died suddenly. After some time, James A Henderson, who had been Capt Stockdal’e’s chief assistant in the Pittsburgh offices, and his brother-in-law, George WC Johnston, bought a controlling interest in the line.  The Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line was reorganized in 1889 bearing the same name and listing the officers as follows.

 

Officer	Position
James A Henderson	President and General Manager
Thomas S Calhoon	Vice president
George WC Johnston	Secretary and TreasurerGeneral Freight and Passenger Agent
Alex J Henderson	Assistant Superintendent
John Crockard	Agent – Wheeling, WV
J Frank Ellison	Superintendent – Cincinnati

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parthenia Parr Calhoon kept a Flora album with signatures of friends and people she met while travelling.   One page of the book has the signatures of the officers of the

dated 4 Jun 1888.  The officers were Dan’lM Lacy (clerk), Chas W Knox (clerk), and JH Olum (pilot).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1889 as the Keystone State was being built for Thomas Stevenson Calhoon and the Katie Stockdale was being dismantled, the steamer Rainbow was chartered by the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line. On 10 Mar 1890 the Congo was chartered to replace the Rainbow which had unfortunately burned while laid up for low water near Cincinnati.

 

At this time a round trip fare, Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, was $12.  A round trip fare to the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1892 and 1893 was $18.  The dedication ceremonies for the World’s Columbian Exposition were held on 21 Oct 1892 and the fair continued until 30 Oct 1893.

 Fleet in 1892

Packet	Depart Pittsburgh	Depart Cincinnati
Keystone State	Mon
Scotia	Tue
Hudson	Wed
Iron Queen	Fri
CW Batchelor	Sat

 

The Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line packets and officers in 1893:

 

Fleet in 1893

Packet	Captain	Purser
Keyston State	Thomas S Calhoon	Charles W Knox
Scotia	Mace Agnew	Daniel M Lacey
Hudson	Robert S Agnew	AJ Slaven
Iron Queen	John MPhilips	RH Kerr
CW Batchelor	JM Keever	George W Hunter
Andes	Thomas Hunter	AJ Slaven

 

 

 

The Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line packets and officers in 1894:

 

Fleet in 1894

Packet	Captain	Purser
Keyston State	Thomas S Calhoon	Charles W Knox
Scotia	GE Rowley	Tim Penwell
Hudson	J Frank Ellison	DM Lacey
Iron Queen	John MPhilipsTS Calhoon	RH Kerr
Congo	Ed F Maddy	J Wehrman
Andes	Thomas Hunter	AJ Slaven

 

The Iron Queen burned on 3 Apr 1895 while Thomas Stevenson Calhoon was in command.  The steamer LA Sherley with Capt Ed F Maddy and J Wehrman in the office was chartered to replace the Iron Queen until the completion of the Virginia which was launched in Dec 1895.  The Virginia came out on New Years Day 1896. [7]

 

 

The Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line packets and officers in 1896:

 

Packet	Captain	Purser
Keyston State	Charles W Knox
Queen City	Thomas S Sandford	Daniel M Lacey
Virginia	Thomas S Calhoon	RH Kerr
Hudson

 

The Queen City and her sister the Virginia were deluxe packets designed to cater to a rather high class patronage.  Both were advertised in the Pittsburgh social register, to great advantage, as many fashionable Pittsburghers trod their decks.  Both  steamers made annual trips to the Mardi Gras with great success.  Their stewards and chefs were the best money could hire.  The minutes before departure of a Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line boat always had a somewhat carnival air.  Men were dressed in topcoats and silk hats; women wore outfits made complicated by bustles.  All this while roustabouts performed their ballet of loading barrels and boxes.

 

The Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line packets and officers in 1904:

 

Packet	Captain	Purser
Keyston State	Charles W Knox
Queen City	Thomas S Sandford
Virginia	Thomas S Calhoon
Hudson

 

Thomas S Calhoon retired from the river in 1904 at age 70.  His career spanned 56 years from his first trip aboard his Uncle Richard Calhoon’s steamer Caledonia to his final voyage on the Virginia.   He witnessed the rise and decline of steamboat commerce.

 

Of the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line Charles Henry Ambler in 1932 wrote:  “To this day one needs only to mention the names Thomas S Calhoon, J Frank Ellison, and Charles W Knox, commanders of the “Second” Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line, to revive the best river traditions of the Ohio…  The steamboatmen of this period are the pride and boast of the inland waters.  In courtesy they had few if any superiors; in efficiency and accomplishments they were surpassed, among rivermen, only by their contemporaries, “the coal barons”.  For a generation or more the richest river annals of America have been the stories of their deeds and achievements…  From their biographies and those of their contemporaries who have passed on in the last generation could be written important chapters in the story of our national development.”  [8]  Those were the happy days.  What could be a better tribute?

 

None of the steamers in the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line was built with, operated with, or carried a bar.  [9]

 

The Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line was forced into receivership in 1909 but continued to operate until 1912 when its assets were sold to John W Hubbard of Pittsburgh.

 

 

Summary.

The packets built expressly for the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line were the best of their day.  Style and luxury were their key features:  Katie Stockdale (1877), Keystone State (1890), Iron Queen (1892), Virginia (1895-6), Queen City (1897).   None of these boats were designed to operate or carry a bar. [10]

 

Thomas Stevenson Calhoon and Jackman Taylor Stockdale were over-achievers from the long forgotten borough of Georgetown, PA.

 

 

References.

 

---

[1]  Alexander C McIntosh, A Genealogy Report on the Calhoon Family, Beaver County Historical Society.
[2] Thomas Cushing, A Genealogical and Boigraphical History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Clearfield, Chicago 1889, pg 214.
[3] Philip Feldon Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, Volume 1, International Publishers Co, Inc, 1947, p 475.
[4] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 150.
[5]  Alexander C McIntosh, A Genealogy Report on the Calhoon Family, Beaver County Historical Society.
[6]  Alexander C McIntosh, A Genealogy Report on the Calhoon Family, Beaver County Historical Society.
[7]  Alexander C McIntosh, A Genealogy Report on the Calhoon Family, Beaver County Historical Society.
[8] Charles Henry Amble,, A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley, pg 293-294.
[9]  Alexander C McIntosh, A Genealogy Report on the Calhoon Family, Beaver County Historical Society.
[10]  Ewing Family Papers, Thomas S Calhoon Papers. Box 5, Heinz History Center.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2011 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved

 

Jackman Taylor Stockdale, son of Joseph H and Mary M Sterigere Stockdale, was born on 1 Mar 1828 in Fredericktown, Columbiana Co, OH.  While the general manager of the famous Pittsburgh Cincinnati Packet Line, aged 59, he died quite suddenly on Jun 8, 1887 at his home in Allegheny City.  According to his obituary, the Captain had just finished supper and fell from his chair.  Several physicians were summoned who examined the body and “pronounced life extinct”.

 

Family Background.

Jackman Stockdale had a first cousin named Stockdale Jackman.   Unfortunately, whether Stockdale Jackman’s middle  name was Taylor  or even whether his middle initial was “T” is unknown.   Before moving to Fredericktown, OH from Washington, PA, Joseph H Stockdale and John Jackman had become great friends.  John Jackman married Joseph Stockdale’s sister, Deborah.  Each couple had a son named to honor that friendship resulting in first cousins named Jackman Stockdale and Stockdale Jackman.  Eventually, both families achieved wealth and fame.  Capt Jackman T Stockdale worked in river commerce while the Stockdale Jackman family by marriage became the founders of several of the early pottery companies in East Liverpool, OH.  On Aug 3, 1848 in Georgetown, Capt Jackman T Stockdale married Mary Jane Calhoon, the youngest child of William and Elizabeth Hutchinson Calhoon.  At that time Jackman T Stockdale was a clerk on her brother, his uncle Richard Calhoon’s steamer American. [1]

 

The JT Stockdales moved to Georgetown, in 1849 where they lived till 1864.  On the riverbank in Georgetown, the Stockdales built a home two blocks west (down river) from Richard Calhoon’s home (the site where Thomas S Calhoon’ home was later built).  In 1864, the JT Stockdales moved to North Avenue and Palo Alto St in Allegheny City (now the North Side of Pittsburgh).  They were members of the Third Presbyterian Church.  Their daughters, Ida, Minnie, Mary (Birdie), and Catherine (Katie), were educated at the Pittsburgh Female College.  With his father, Willis, the eldest son, worked in the family steamboat business, but was mostly interested in Second Ward politics.[2]   Sons Charles and John T were still in school at the time of their father’s death.

 

According to Harriet (Calhoon) Ewing, who lived in Georgetown near the Stockdales and often visited them in Allegheny City, JT Stockdale was handsome, genial, and very dignified.  He was generous and a good provider. [3]

 

After moving to Allegheny City, JT Stockdale discontinued active work on the rivers although he continued to manage the Pittsburgh Cincinnati Packet Line.  His interests turned to oil refining with Standard Oil Co.  He became a member of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce.  He was an officer in the Peoples Railway Co and secretary treasurer of the Pleasant Valley Street Railway Co.  Not completely forgetting his roots, he acted as a steamboat agent and worked in the commission business for hay, grain, etc.  At that time, James A Henderson was his associate.  JT Stockdale is credited with the installation of the first electric lights on the wharf at Pittsburgh and hydrants to supply drinking water to steamboats.[4]

 

JT Stockdale’s wife, Mary Jane died on Jan 12 1898 at the home of daughter Ida (Stockdale-Knowles) Stafford in New York City.   The family cemetery is Uniondale Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

 

 

In addition to having one of the most famous mountain boats named in her honor, Ida Stockdale married Homer S Knowles in 1877.  He was the second K in the company Knowles, Taylor and Knowles (KT&K) which made Lotus Ware in East Liverpool, OH.  Ida and Homer Knowles regularly hosted William McKinley, our 25^th President.  When Homer S Knowles died in 1892, William McKinley was one of his pallbearers.  Ida remarried, moved to New York City, and died in Oct 1904. [5]

 

 

 

 

River Career.

After a good common school education and one year of teaching school, Jackman Taylor Stockdale began his life on the river in 1845 as a clerk aboard the steamer American.  Jackman T Stockdale also worked as a master on steamboats owned by Georgetown men such as the str Golden Gate owned by his  Joseph MC Calhoon.  That was the start of 18 years as an owner, captain, pilot, and clerk on the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers and their tributaries.  In all, he built more than 15 steamboats and was an organizer and officer in several packet line companies.  In 1872 he was the director of the Glencoe Transportation Company; at the same time he was a stockholder in the St Louis and New Orleans Packet Co;  with his nephew Thomas S Calhoon, he organized the second Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line.

 

American.   The American was a sternwheeler built in Smith’s Ferry and finished in Pittsburgh in 1845.  She was rated at 118 tons.  Richard Calhoon was her first master and JT Stockdale, his first position afloat, was clerk.   The American exploded downbound between Louisville and Madison killing four and scalding ten.    In 1850, she was off the books = dismantled.[6]

 

Aleonia.  Rated at 286 tons, the Aleonia was a sidewheeler built in Elizabeth, PA in 1851.  Owned principally by JT Stockdale (5/16), the remainder was shared between three Pittsburgh men and three men from Georgetown.  She was off the books in 1858. [7]

 

 

John C Fremont/Horizon.    Built in California, PA in 1854, the John C Fremont , as the Horizon was first named, was a modest sized sternwheel packet rated at 315 tons.  At that time its principal owner, Capt Jackman Taylor Stockdale, was a young man of 26 years who lived in Georgetown, PA.  The unpretentious Fremont was manned for the most part by Georgetown men:  Capt Richard Calhoon was her master with Thomas S Calhoon (clerk) and Joseph Calhoon (steward), and William Briggs (engineer married to Capt Stockdale’s sister). [8]

 

On 22 Apr 1863, the Horizon ran the Vicksburg and Grand Gulf batteries with supplies.  Her civilian crew, except for her pilots, was temporarily replaced by Army officers and soldiers.  Badly damaged by shell fire, she ran the gauntlet successfully. [9]

 

On May 1, 1863 the Horizon collided with the streamer Moderator at night.  Both boats were running without lights.  Many soldiers were lost when the Horizon sank including Swedish members of Stolbrand’s Battery. .[10]  The government paid $18,500 for the loss of the packet.[11]

 

Capt Stockdale or Richard Calhoon was quite probably the pilot of the Horizon during its missions in the Civil War.  I have found no evidence of any other boats Capt Stockdale owned or operated between the years 1861-1863 so I assume he was aboard the Horizon.

 

 

 

JT Stockdale.   The JT Stockdale was a sternwheeler built in Brownsville, PA in 1863 for Capt JT Stockdale.  Working the Pittsburgh to Cincinnati trade, captained by  BM Laughlin of Georgetown, she was sold to the US Army Quartermaster on Nov 13, 1863. [12] Known as the Stockdale during the Civil War  according to Capt Way, the vessel is not listed in the “Dictionary of Transports and Combatants Vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Union Army 1861-1868” compiled by Charles Dana Gibson and E Kay Gibson.

 

 

Ida Stockdale.   The Ida Stockdale was built in McKeesport, PA for Capt JT Stockdale in 1867.  Designed for Missouri River commerce and named for his daughter Ida who married Homer Knowles, the second K of the famous KT&K pottery was one of three boats to make the trip to Ft Benton five times.  On her first trip to Ft Benton Capt Grant Marsh of later Indian War fame, was in charge.  Thomas S Calhoon was first clerk.  That first season the Ida Stockdale cleared $42,500 while transporting Gen Alfred Terry and his staff to Ft Benton.  Capt Marsh worked for JT Stockdale for several seasons on the Missouri.  [13]

 

Barranquilla.  Built under the supervision of JT Stockdale in Pittsburgh in 1869, the Barranquilla was designed for work on the Magdelena River in Columbia South America.  Master Thomas S Calhoon with Jacob Poe and Andreww Parr as pilots, left Pittsburgh on Aug 23, 1869 for New Orleans.   From new Orleans, a gulf pilot island hopped the boat to Columbia.   [14]

 

Sallie.    In 1867-8 partners Thomas S Calhoon and Jackman T Stockdale built the Sallie for the Montana  mountain trade.  The Sallie was a wooden hull sternwheel packet built in McKeesport and finished in Pittsburgh.  Rated at 399 tons, the Sallie ran to Ft Benton three years with Capt Calhoon in command.  The ownnership was 2/3 Thomas S Calhoon and 1/3 Jackman T Stockdale.  The cost of the Sallie was $29,457.83.

 

The Sallie made the fastest trip ever to Ft Benton.  The following dates are provided by a genealogy report and taken from Thomas S Calhoon’s diary.  On 15 Mar 1868, the Sallie left Pittsburgh for St Louis; departed St Louis on 9 Apr 1868; arrived at Ft Benton on 26 May 1868; returned to dock at St Louis on 10 Jun 1868.  That is 47 days out of St Louis.

 

On the 1868 trip, the Sallie gross receipts were $33,508.92 with a profit of $12,747.69.  In addition to his share as an owner, Thomas S Calhoon earned a salary of $6,138.35.  By the way, Horace Bixby was one of the pilots that year.  He was the man who taught Mark Twain river piloting.

  

Glencoe.    The Glencoe was a sidewheel wooden hull packet built in Shousetown, PA in 1870 and completed in Pittsburgh in 1871.  It was a big sidewheeler (275x43x7) built for deep water and operation in the Louisville to New Orleans trade.  The original owners were Capt Thomas S Calhoon and Capt Jackman T Stockdale.  The pilots who took her out for her maiden voyage were Jacob Poe and his son George WE Poe.  The first clerk was John QA Parr. [15]

 

On 19 Jan 1871, the Glencoe made her first trip to Nnew Orleans with Capt Thomas S Calhoon at the wheel and JQA Parr clerk.  Later the route switched to St Louis to New Orleans trade.  The Glencoe Transportation Co was established with Capt John Bofinger, president and Thomas S Calhoon, secretary. [16]

 

The Glencoe was snagged and lost near Vicksburg on 28 Oct 1877.  It was a total loss, but much of her equipment was salvaged and installed on the Katie Stockdale including the whistle. [17]

 

 

 

Katie Stockdale.    The Katie Stcokdale was a sternwheel wooden hull packet built in California, PA and completed in Pittsburgh in 1877.  It was a big boat (228×33.5×5) built for Pittsburgh to Cincinnati trade.  The original owners were Capt Jackman T Stockdale (1/2)and Capt Thomas S Calhoon (1/4) and Willis Stockdale (1/4).  The original pilots were James Rowley Sr and George Hughes.  The whistle and cabin furniture were reused from the Glencoe.  She was the first boat of the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line.  [18]

 

The Katie Stockdale was dismantleed in 1890 and much of her equipment was transferrred to the Keystone State.[19]

 

 

 

City of Charier.    The City of Charier was a sternwheeler built in Pittsburgh in 1886 for Capt JT Stockdale.  In its early days, Capt Willis Stockdale was its master and Jim Rowley Jr was its pilot.  The City of Chartiers operated as an hourly ferry between Pittsburgh and McKees Rocks.  JT Stockdale died in 1887 and his partner Capt James A Henderson gained control and sold her in 1889.

 

 

Scotia.    The Scotia was a 601 tons sternwheeler built in Hamar, OH in 1880.  She ran in the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line along with the Katie Stockdale, Keystone State, and Emma Graham.[20]

 

 

Emma Graham.   Built in 1877 for the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line under the supervision of Capt JT Stockdale,  

 

 

Granite State.    Built in 1870 in California, PA, the granite State worked Pittsburgh to Portmouth trade.  Acquired by the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line, she worked till retired.[21]

 

 

Hudson.    A handsome, proudly built boat in Freddom, PA and completed in Pittsburgh in 1886 for Capt Frank Ellison worked the Paducah to St Louis trade.  In 1889, Capt Ellison became a stockholder in the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line and superintendent at the Cincinnati office.  In 1903 she was replaced, yet many of her virtues were enhanced in the building of the Virginia and Queen City. [22] 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary.

 

As neighbors in Georgetown and partners in many steamboat and packet line ventures, the names Jackman Taylor Stockdale and Thomas Stevenson Calhoon stand head and shoulders above the rest.  Their body of work, from early river experiences to their Civil War service and their participation in the development of “the West” in general and specifically the Montana Territory, surpasses any other steamboat captains and pilots life’s work.  Their long careers witnessed the rise and decline of steamboat commerce.  From independent operators, they formed packet companies which pooled a number of vessels to serve specific trade routes.  They were over achievers who lived their lives fully.

 

References.

 

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[1].   Alexander C McIntosh, A Genealogy Report on the Calhoon Family.
[2]  Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Gary Winterburn and Regis Scharf, The Enchanted Village:  The History of Fredreicktown Ohio, (privately published, 1992).
[6]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 20.
[7] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 9.
[8] Frederick Way, Jr. Personal Letter.
[9] Charles Dana Gibson and E Kay Gibson, Dictionary of Transports and Combatant Vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Uniion Army 1861 – 1868, (Ensign Press, Cambridge, MA 1995), p 152.
[10] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 217.
[11]  Charles Dana Gibson and E Kay Gibson, Dictionary of Transports and Combatant Vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Uniion Army 1861 – 1868, (Ensign Press, Cambridge, MA 1995), p 152.
[12]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 237.
[13] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 221.
[14] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 39.
[15]  Capt Frederick Way, Jr., The Steamboating Poe Family, (S&D Reflector (Dec 1965)).
[16]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 189.
[17]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 189.
[18]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 268.
[19]  Ibid.
[20]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 421.
[21]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 197.
[22]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 218.

 

George Washington Ebert, often addressed as Washington Ebert, was born on 3 Aug 1810 near Hagerstown, MD.  He died on 24 Apr 1879 in Georgetown, Beaver Co, PA and was interred with his wife Nancy Ann Poe in Georgetown Cemetery.  His wife, Nancy Ann Poe, was born in New Lisbon, Columbiana Co, OH on 20 Mar 1818.  On 23 Nov 1907 she died in her home in Georgetown, PA.  George Washington Ebert was a prominent and wealthy steamboat captain.

He had a long and successful career.  During the golden age of packets, he steamed on all the inland rivers and tributaries of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers.  The best way for my great great grandfather to be remembered is to tell his story.

 

 

 

Family Background.

 

George Washington Ebert was the son of Frederick Ebert and Mary Ann Hague.  Little information has been found on Frederick Ebert.  Mary Ann Hague was born on 17 Jun 1791 in Hagerstown, MD and died on 9 Oct 1866 in Georgetown, PA.  Her second husband was Abraham H Parr.

 

Capt George W and Nancy Ann Ebert had one daughter, Mary Ann, better known as Mollie Ebert.  Mollie was born 17 Sep 1840 in Georgetown, PA and died on 07 Sep 1925.

 

 

The steamer Mollie Ebert built and launched in 1869 by Jacob Poe was named for his niece Mollie Ebert Trimble.  The steamer was his masterpiece.  It cost $35,000 with a capacity of 600 tons.  Mollie Ebert Trimble and her Aunt Elizabeth Poe Mathews helped christen the steamer and then went on her maiden voyage to New Orleans.  The Mollie Ebert was described in “The Romance of the Rivers”.  [1]

 

Business Ventures.

Bridgewater.  The Bridgewater was built in 1843 and Capt George W Ebert was her master.   She ran the Pittsburgh to Wheeling trade and was able to run in low water conditions.  Her partner boat the was Belmont owned and operated by Capt Jacob Poe.

 

Hudson.  The Hudson was a 94 ton sternwheel built in 1846. in Glasgow, PA  for Capt George W Ebert, her first master.  In Dec 1848, Ebert sold the vessel to fellow Georgetown resident James McMillan. wo also ran her from Pittsburgh to ports in Ohio.  In Apr 1850, the boat was carry CA prospectors from Ohio.  They were robbed “and all started home without a cent”.

 

Glaucus.  The sidewheel wooden hull packet named the Glaucus was built in West Elizabeth, PA in 1849 for the St Louis to Keokuk Packet Line.  Its capacity was 154 tons.  George Washington Ebert was part owner and captain.  The Glaucus met a fiery end on 30 Mar 1852 in Montrose, IA.[2]

 

Washington City.  The Washington City, a side wheeler built in Freedom, PA in 1852, worked in the Pittsburgh to Cincinnati trade.  Her capacity was rated at 282 tons.  In 1855, George Washington Ebert was her master.  With mainly a Georgetown crew, he made a special run to St Louis to collect the body of his brother-in-law, Joseph Mc Calhoon, who had died of cholera.  The Washington City was off the books in 1859.[3]

 

 

Argyle.  The sidewheel wooden hull packet named the Argyle was built for Jacob Poe in Freedom, PA in 1853.  It was rated at 319 tons – the largest capacity Poe boat to that time.  Partners in the venture were Capt George W Ebert and Standish Peppard.  Capt Ebert commanded the boat between Cincinnati and New Orleans and St Louis and New Orleans.  Standish Peppard was the first clerk. [4]

 

The Argyle served during the Civil War transporting Gen Grant’s troops on the Tennessee River.  She was part of the expedition to Pittsburg Landing in Apr 1862 in support of the battle at Shiloh.  Later in Sep 1862 she was utilized by the Army as a temporary gunboat for river security. [5]  Whether it was impressed or contracted is unknown.

 

Kenton.  The Kenton was a sternwheel wooden hull packet built in Shousetown, PA in 1860.  Its capacity was rated at 215 tons.  The boat was built under the direction of Capt Nelson Crooks who was also one of its first owners.  In Oct 1861 Capt George W Ebert and Standish Peppard, both from Georgetown, PA, bought the steamer for the Pittsburgh to Cincinnati to Louisville trade. [6]  A short time after the purchase, the Kenton was called to service by the US Army Quartermaster.

 

The steamer Kenton had a long and well documented historic life.  Much of the collected information during the Civil War years came from the documents held at the National Archives.  To hold documents signed by George W Ebert and Standish Peppard is both amazing and intimidating simultaneously.

 

Yorktown.  The Yorktown was a sternwheel packet built in Freedom, PA in 1864 with a rated capacity of 426 tons.  Capt Jacob Poe, the initial owner, brought her out in Oct 1864 for a Pittsburgh to Louisville trip.  From the files of the Pittsburgh “Commercial” dated 28 Oct 1864:  The new and pretty Yorktown, with Capt Jacob Poe in command, leaves for Louisville Saturday.  In Jan 1865, Capt George W Ebert bought control of the packet with Standish Peppard in the office.  Her main route was Pittsburgh to Cincinnati with an occasional trip to Nashville.[7]  In Mar 1866, Standish Peppard hired as his second clerk a son who had served three years with the Union Army.  Unfortunately, the first name was not given to identify which of two sons who served was the second clerk.

 

In 1867 and again in 1868, the Yorktown steamed to Ft Benton in Montana Territory.  In 1867, the Yorktown docked at Ft Benton on 14 Jun with 210 tons of freight and 15 passengers.  Like clockwork, the Yorktown docked at Ft Benton on 14 Jun 1868 with 200 tons of cargo and 20 passengers. [8]  I assume Jacob Poe was aboard as a pilot during these trips.  The Yorktown was off the books in 1869.[9]

 

Carrie Brooks.  The Carrie Brooks was a sternwheeler built in 1866 in Pittsburgh, PA.  In 1870, she departed Zanesville, OH with emigrants and their possessions bound for Kansas.[10]  Capt Ebert was captain and part owner according to a Poe genealogy report produced by Alexander C McIntosh about 1973.  John A Trimble bought control in 1878 for the Pittsburgh to Gallipolis and Pittsburgh to Zanesville trade.  Neither route had great success so he sold her to Capt William J Kountz who sold the hull to Sisterville, Wv for a wharf boat.

 

 

 

Mollie Ebert.  The Mollie Ebert, a sternwheeler built in Pittsburgh in 1869 according to Capt Frederick Way.  In 1869 with a load of freight aboard the steamboat Mollie Ebert, Capt George Washington Ebert left Georgetown landing destined for Fort Benton in the Montana Territory.  Nancy Ann (Poe) Ebert accompanied her husband and kept a journal on that river voyage.  They were steaming right into Indian Territory a few years before General Custer met a bloody defeat at nearby Little Bighorn.

 

According to the journal, the Mollie Ebert did not dock in Ft Benton.  Her freight was unloaded at Cow Island which is approximately 130 miles down river.  On Jun 16, 1869, the freight was carried around a chute and loaded on two other steamboats for the final leg to Ft Benton.  Failure to reach Ft Benton was an intense disappointment.  Measured in miles the roundtrip distance from Georgetown to Ft Benton totaled 4,000 miles.  Measured in days, their trip consumed approximately 90 days.  The two segments of the journal cover only 920 miles of the trip over 57 grueling days.

 

 

Like so many steamers, the Mollie Ebert met her end in flames at the Pittsburgh Wharf on 25 May 1875.

 

Family History.

 

The Ebert House was built on the bluff along the river in the 1845.  The property was sold by Jacob Poe to George W Ebert  on 16 Jan 1845 as recorded in the office of Deeds for Beaver County Vol 30 Page 512.  When Mollie Ebert married John A Trimble in 1858, the home became the residence of both families.  The property was transferred from George W Ebert to John A Trimble on 22 Jan 1872 (Office of Deeds Vol 63 Page 658).  The property stayed in the Trimble family till purchased by Wendell H Welborn on 27 Apr 1945.  Today it is the home of Nicholas and Judy Nash Maravich, great great grandaughter of George W Ebert.

 

 

 

River Philosophy.  George Washington Ebert started his career as a steamboat captain in the 1840’s long before the regulation of pilots and steam boilers.  The issuance and revocation of pilot’s licenses controlled by the Steamboat-Inspection Service was established by the steamboat act of Aug 30, 1852.  This act was an attempt to curb riverboat racing and reduce the number passenger deaths due to steamboat disasters caused by boiler explosions.  Pilots were deemed the princes of the river.  Without pilots, a high stack packet was worthless.  Not all captains were qualified pilots, and not all pilots aspired to be captains.  Even when serving a captain who himself was a qualified pilot, the pilot at the wheel reigned supreme during his allotted watch.  Steamboat captains and pilots were high stakes gamblers.  High risks, high rewards, peak excitement.  The term “fighting pilot” was used to describe a pilot who loved racing.  Fast boats attracted more passengers and better rates for cargo.  For a fighting pilot, the balance between speed and safety tilted toward speed.  To the best of my knowledge, George Washington Ebert never held the horns for any trade route.  A boat that held the honor of fastest time on a trade route was awarded a mount of gilded antlers which were strung between the high stacks of the boat.  The races were called “runs for the horns”.

 

Personal Wealth.  According to 1860 census data, George Washington Ebert was a wealthy man.   He was listed sixth among the Georgetown captains.  His financial position improved to fourth in 1870.  His household also claimed one domestic servant in 1870.

 

 

Summary.

 

It is astounding to think of the accomplishments of George Washington Ebert and these few pioneers.  Born within the decade of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, they were risk takers, doers.  My wish is that their story will live always and the memories will never die.

Georgetown Cemetery Markers.

 

 

Summary of the George Washington Ebert Steamers

 

 

Packet Name	Build Date Way’s Directory	Original Primary Owner (Signed Cert of Enrollment)
Belfast	1843	George W Ebert
Bridgewater	1843	George W Ebert
New England	1844	George W Ebert
Hudson	1846	George W Ebert
Hibernia*	1847	George W Ebert
Glaucus	1849	George W Ebert
Washington City	1852	George W Ebert
Yorktown	1853	George W Ebert
Clifton	1855	George W Ebert
Belmont	1856	George W Ebert
Melnotte	1856	George W Ebert
Argyle	1859	George W Ebert
Kenton	1860	George W Ebert
Yorktown *	1864	George W Ebert
Mollie Ebert	1869	George W Ebert
Fairmont	1837	Jacob Poe
Financier	1845	Adam Poe
Pioneer	1846	Adam Poe
Euphrates	1847	Joseph MC Calhoon
Tuscarora	1848	Jacob Poe
Golden Gate	1852	Joseph MC Calhoon
Caledonia *	1854	Richard Calhoon
Grand Turk	1854	AB Galatin

 

 

 

 

 

 

References. 

 

---

[1]  Alexander C McIntosh, Genealogical Report from the Beaver o Historical Society, date unknown.
[2]   Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 188.
[3]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 481.
[4]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 28.
[5]  Charles Dana Gibson and E Kay Gibson, Dictionary of Transports and Combatant Vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Uniion Army 1861 – 1868, (Ensign Press, Cambridge, MA 1995), p 30.
[6]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 269.
[7] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 493-494.
[8]  Joel Overholser, Fort Benton World’s Innermost Port, (River & Plains Society, 1987), p. 64-69.
[9] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 493-494.
[10]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 73.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2014 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved

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

.

 

Adam W Poe was a well known riverman and grandson of the famous Indian fighter Adam Poe.  Born on Wednesday, 20 Nov 1816, in New Lisbon, Columbiana Co, OH, he was the third child and third son of Thomas Washington Poe Sr and Elizabeth Hephner.  After a short illness, Adam W Poe died of pneumonia at his home in Georgetown at an early hour on Friday, 10 Apr 1896. [1]  At the time of his death, he was “extraordinarily well preserved, mentally and physically” according to his obituary in the East Liverpool Crisis dated 11 Apr 1896. [2]

 

Like his older brother Jacob, Adam’s career as a steamboat pilot and owner of numerous packets witnessed the rise of steamboat commerce and its decline.  He steamed on all the tributaries of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri river systems.  Starting at an early age, he traveled far, saw much, and accumulated great wealth.

 

 

Family Background.

 

The story of the Georgetown Poe family begins with the emigration of George Poe from Alsace to the Maryland countryside near Frederick in the 1760′s.   Sons, Andrew and Adam, left MD for western PA near the Ohio River.  They attained fame for their Revolutionary War service and their frontier battles with the Indians.  Adam’s son Thomas Washington Poe Sr moved his family from New Lisbon, OH to Georgetown in 1823.  Capt Adam Poe was seven when his family moved to Georgetown where he lived the remainder of his life.  His father, Thomas Washington Poe Sr, built a log home on the property where “The Poe House” still stands.  His family grew to ten.  With his young sons as deckhands, Thomas entered the profitable river freight business.  The business grew from rafting logs to keelboating coal and grain to ports as far south as Cincinnati.  All of the children of Thomas and Elizabeth Poe worked the rivers.  Sons, Jacob, Adam, Thomas Washington, and George W, became steamboat captains and pilots.  Andrew was the manager of the family business and a packet owner/financier and mate.  Daughters, Nancy Ann married Capt George W Ebert, Elizabeth married Capt Standish Peppard, and Sarah H married Capt George Groshorn Calhoon.   The Poes were representative of many emigrant families who became wealthy and attained prominence over several generations despite starting with little more than energy and pluck.  In this, they were greatly assisted by a expanding county and a tight circle of Georgetown families.

 

On 16 Feb 1842, Adam married Lucy Irene Todd Smith.  Their marriage of 54 years produced nine children.  None of the children of Adam W Poe had any connection to the river business.

 

 

Early Business Ventures.

 

As a boy, he worked on keelboats on the Ohio River.  He keelboated flour to Pittsburgh returning down river with salt and iron.  He hired on to the steamer Beaver working the upper Ohio.  Then he worked under command of his brother Jacob on the Beaver #2 on the Allegheny River.  In 1834 he worked on the Steubenville; in 1836 the New Lisbon and Coquette; in 1838 the Norfolk.  Working as a deck hand, he learned well the river between Pittsburgh and Louisville.  In the fall of 1837 Adam purchased a quarter section of land in Missouri where he traveled by boat.  He returned to Georgetown as a deck hand on the Maine.[3]  Quite an adventurous life for a twenty something.

 

Fallston.  The Fallston, a small sternwheel packet, was the first steamboat purchase for Adam and Jacob Poe.  The brothers bought the boat in 1841 for low water work between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.  It was too small to accommodate passengers so two keelboats fitted with bunks were towed alongside.  [4]  By this time Adam had been a pilot as far as Cairo, IL.

Like most Poe family boats, several family members and a few close friends were partners.  The ownership in 1843 according to the Certificate of Enrollment of the Customhouse in Pittsburgh, PA is displayed in the following table.

 

Str Fallston

Owners and Partners	Share	Vol:	6627
Jacob Poe		Enroll No :	57
Adam Poe		Cert Date:	6/10/1843
Andrew Poe		Cert Type::
ThomasPoe		Build Locn:
		Build Date:

 

 

Financier.  Adam Poe built this sternwheeler in Pittsburgh in 1845.  He operated her one season in the Pittsburgh to Cincinnati trade and then sold the boat to Capt William J Kountz.  On 12 Oct 1850 near Alton, IL, the boilers exploded killing the Capt King’s son and the second engineer Wlliam Greene.  Many others were scalded.

The ownership in 1845 according to the Certificate of Enrollment of the Customhouse in Pittsburgh, PA is displayed in the following table.

 

Str Financier

Owners and Partners	Share	Vol:	6628
Adam Poe (master)		Enroll No :	11
Jacob Poe		Cert Date:	21 May 1845
Thomas W Poe		Cert Type::
George Calhoon		Build Locn:
Andrew Poet		Build Date:
George Poe
Washington Ebert

 

 

Cinderella.  Adam Poe bought a 50% share of the Cinderella, a small sternwheeler, in 1847.  He ran her in the Pittsburgh to Cincinnati trade for four months.  Profits from the operation were $8,000.  He then sold his half interest and quit the river to try the gentle art of farming.

The ownership in 1849 according to the Certificate of Enrollment of the Customhouse in Pittsburgh, PA is displayed in the following table.

 

Str Cinderella

Owners and Partners	Share	Vol:	6633
James H Haslett		Enroll No :	116
Andrew Poe		Cert Date:	6 Aug 1849
George Poe		Cert Type::	Enrollment
		Build Locn:	Elizabeth, PA
		Build Date:	1847

George G Calhoon continued to run the Cinderella until he died at age 30 while running the business.  His wife, Sarah Poe Calhoon, was a sister of Adam Poe.  Adam became the legal guardian of his sister’s sons, Thomas P and William A Calhoon.

 

 

Business Ventures after 1848.

 

Financier II.  In 1850 Adam Poe built the second Financier steamer which he operated for three years.  Going down the Ohio one night after Paducah, a mystery passenger arrived on board.  The newborn of Mr Wilder and his wife arrived and was aptly named after the captain in accordance with river tradition.  The little stranger was named Adam Poe Wilder.  All went well for the mother and baby.  Capt Poe landed little Adam and his parents about 8 miles below St Louis.  Capt Poe never heard from the Wilder family. [5]

The Financier No 2 is mentioned in “Navigating the Missouri” by William E Lass as one of three steamers in 1854 to reach Ft Riley on the Kansas River 243 miles from Kansas City.   Not only did the Financier No 2 reach Ft Riley, she took a side trip up the Republican River about 40 miles.  That was an astonishing feat for the time.

The original ownership according to the Certificate of Enrollment of the Customhouse in Pittsburgh, PA is displayed in the following table.

Str Financier

Owners and Partners	Share	Vol:	6633
Adam Poe		Enroll No :	95
Jacob Poe		Cert Date:	24 Jun 1850
Thomas W Poe		Cert Type::	Admeasurement
George Poe		Build Locn:	Freedom, PA
George W Ebbert		Build Date:	1850
Thomas Smith

 

The second Certificate of Enrollment dated 28 Jun 1851 listed the owners in a different order and identified their share of the partnership.

 

Str Financier

Owners and Partners	Share	Vol:	6634
Adam Poe	1/4	Enroll No :	94
Jacob Poe	1/8	Cert Date:	28 Jun 1851
George W Ebbert	1/8	Cert Type::	Enrollment
Thomas W Poe	1/4	Build Locn:	Freedom, PA
Thomas Smith	1/8	Build Date:	1850
George Poe	1/8

 

 

Royal Arch.  In 1852, Capt Adam Poe built and sold her within the year.  The str Royal Arch was a sidewheeler built in West Elizabeth, PA rated at 212 tons.  In 1854 Capt EH Gleim commanded the str Royal Arch in the Davenport-Galena-Dubuque trade.  In 1858, the str Royal Arch was snagged and at Nine Mile Island below Dubuque and declared a total loss according to Riverboat Dave.

The original ownership according to the Certificate of Enrollment of the Customhouse in Pittsburgh, PA is displayed in the following table.

Str Royal Arch

Owners and Partners	Share	Vol:	6634
Adam Poe	11/16	Enroll No :	173
Thomas Poe	2/16	Cert Date:	11 Nov 1852
Irwin Cevil	1/16	Cert Type::	Admeasurement
Alfred Ladwich	2/16	Build Locn:	Elizabeth, PA
		Build Date:	1852

 

Ella.  The Ella was a sternwheel wooden hull packet built in Elizabeth, PA in 1854.  Capt Adam Poe and others from Georgetown were partners in ownership.  The Ella worked the Cincinnati to St Louis trade and ran as far as Galena and Dubuque on the Missouri.  On 13 Dec 1865, the Ella was snagged and lost on the Arkansas River near Little Rock.[6] 

The original ownership according to the Certificate of Enrollment of the Customhouse in Pittsburgh, PA is displayed in the following table.

Str Ella

Owners and Partners	Share	Vol:	6636
Adam Poe	7/16	Enroll No :	98
Andrew Poe	2/16	Cert Date:
Thomas Poe	2/16	Cert Type::
George Poe	2/16	Build Locn:
Henry Smith	1/16	Build Date:	1854
JW Chambers	2/16

 

Neptune.  The Neptune was a sternwheel wooden hull packet(150×39.5×4) built in California, PA and finished in Pittsburgh in 1856.  Capt Adam Poe was her first master and part owner with others principally from Georgetown, PA.  The original ownership was divided as follows:

 Str Neptune

Owners and Partners	Share
Adam Poe	3/8
Thomas Poe	1/4
Jacob Poe	3/16
George Poe	1/16
Jacob Diehl & Co	1/8

 

Adam Poe commanded the Neptune for two years in the Pittsburgh to St Louis commerce.[7]

 

At the outbreak of the war, the Neptune was sold to Capt John Kyle of Cincinnati, Oh.  She was used in te Cincinnati to Memphis trade and along te Cumberland River.  I suspect this use was transporting Army troops and supplies.  On 19 M1862, she smashed into the Clarksville Bridge and was a total loss.  During the Civil War, Adam Poe piloted troop and supply transports.

 

Belfast2.  The Belfast was built in Freedom, PA in 1857.  With his brothers as partners, he ran her one year on the Wabash River and a trip to Dubque, IA.

 

On 6 May 1862 Capt Carleton was in command when the Belfast had to depart Augusta, KY with haste.  Morgan’s Raiders had entered the town.  The Belfast burned on the Tombighee River on 7 Mar 1868. [8]

 

Yorktown.  The Yorktown was a sternwheel packet built in Freedom, PA in 1864 with a rated capacity of 253 tons.  Capt Jacob Poe, the initial owner, brought her out in Oct 1864 for a Pittsburgh to Louisville trip.  From the files of the Pittsburgh “Commercial” dated 28 Oct 1864:  The new and pretty Yorktown, Capt Poe, leaves for Louisville Saturday.  In Jan 1865, Capt George W Ebert bought control of the packet with Standish Peppard in the office.  Her main route was Pittsburgh to Cincinnati with an occasional trip to Nashville.[9]  In Mar 1866, Standish Peppard hired as his second clerk a son who had served three years with the Union Army.  Unfortunately, the first name was not given because two sons had served.

 

America.  Adam Poe bought the America in 1866.  He operated the America for one year then sold her because he was losing money.  I do not have any biographical data on the America because seven streamers named America are listed in Way’s packet Directory and I am unable to determine which vessel was purchased by Adam Poe.

 

Big Foot. The Big Foot, a sternwheel wooden hull packet built in Pittsburgh, PA in 1875, was owned by Adam W Poe and others from Georgetown, PA.  Soon after its completion, Capt Adam Poe sold a fifty percent interest for $5,000 to a man in Florida.  As part of the deal, Capt Adam Poe was contracted to deliver the steamer.  Loaded with freight for New Orleans, Capt Adam Poe delivered his cargo, and then made preparations for sea.  Six pairs of ropes were lashed around the hull and roof with “Kanawha” twisters.  The boilers were similarly protected and the smokestacks were cut at roof level.  Sternwheel packets with their low draft were not designed for big water adventures.[10]

 

 

At daybreak from New Orleans, the Gulf pilot took charge.  The trip went wrong from that point.  The Big Foot steamed down the pass toward the Chandeleur Islands some eighty miles away.  An approaching storm changed calculations.  About seven miles short of the islands the anchor was heaved in Mississippi Sound.  With its anchor dragging, the Big Foot wallowed for sixty hours.  But the Big Foot lived to complete her voyage.  Sustaining serious damage, the cost of repair was considerable.  Capt Adam Poe calculated he “was $10,000 less in pocket” when the adventure was over.  “Went home in very low spirits.” he concluded in his account.  [11]

 

 

 

 

One year later on Saturday night Dec 9, 1876 as reported in the Memphis Daily Appeal, the Big Foot sank ten miles above Eufaula, AL.  She sank to her boiler deck and her cargo of cotton floated off.  The Big Foot was a total loss.  At this time, the owners were Capt Adam Poe and the Central Railroad of Georgia.  A photo survived according to Capt Frederick Way showing a large Indian atop the pilot house sticking out of the water.  This Indian represented the Wyandot Indian chief killed in the 1781 battle with the Poe brothers on the Ohio River near New Cumberland, WV and opposite the mouth of the Yellow Creek.  [12]

 

 

Adam Poe essentially retired from the river commerce after the Big Foot adventure.  The last trip he made was on the steamer Annie Roberts with Capt Alaback.  Capt Alaback stopped at Georgetown in need of a pilot so Adam went to Louisville with him.

 

Personal History.

 

Family.  According to Harriet Calhoon Ewing in an interview conducted by Capt Way in Dec 1965, “Adam Poe was a pillar of the Georgetown Methodist Episcopal Church, and it was said that he usually laid up his boats on Sunday.  He was historically minded and wrote a good deal for the newspapers regarding his Indian fighting relatives.  In the 1870s, he financed a panorama of the Big Foot adventure, painted by his artist son Andrew.  In 1887 Adam Poe wrote his autobiography for the East Liverpool Tribune which although poorly put together, contains much information about his boating days.” [13]

 

I have a photocopy of a poor copy of the Adam Poe autobiography.  The book is divided into two parts.  The first section, written about 1890, is the early history of the Poe family in America with a family version of the Big Foot battle.  The second section, written on 2 May 1887, is the account of Adam Poe Sr River Experiences.  The experiences are mostly keelboating stories before he reached 21 years of age.  He wrote only one line about his participation in the Civil War – “Sold her (the str Neptune) at the breaking out of the Rebellion, and followed piloting while the war lasted.”  Between 1 Dec 1941 and 6 Sep 1943, Mrs LH Wagner (Lillian May (Poe) Wagner corresponded with Ellis Bailey Hawkins of New Castle, PA.  Mr EB Hawkins was researching the Poe Genealogy with help from Lillian Poe Wagner who he called his first assistant.  Twenty-seven letters were written by EB Hawkins.  A letter dated 16 Mar 1942, Hawkins had received the Adam Poe autobiography and “dropped all his work … and read it clear through.  It certainly is interesting reading.” [14]

 

Around 1850 Adam Poe built a house east of Georgetown in Greene Township on a farm inherited by his wife, Lucy Smith.  The bricks for the house were made on the premises.  The house was quite handsome standing high on the river bank.  The second story balcony was its most popular feature.  It was designed so that Adam could inspect the condition of the river at any time.  The house was destroyed by fire after it had been purchased by Thomas S Calhoon.  The property was then sold to Dravo Corp in 1953 because of its valuable sand and gravel deposits. [15]  On this farm Adam learned the gentle art of farming which he described as an uphill struggle.  He returned again to the river business after taking some time to recover from his piloting experiences of the Civil War.

 

The Civil War years had not been good for river commerce.  At the outbreak of the war, all Mississippi River commerce stopped.  Whether impressed or contracted to service by the US Army Quartermaster, the packet business was dangerous and unprofitable.  Wage scales and freight fees were controlled by the Quartermaster at less than pre-war commercial rates.  Still by any measure, the Georgetown captains and pilots in 1870 were wealthy men.

 

According to the 1860 Census data, Adam Poe was the fourth wealthiest man in Georgetown following his brothers Thomas W and Jacob and Jackman Stockdale.  All were riverboat captains and owners.  After the war, the 1870 Census data found Adam Poe in sixth position on the wealth ladder of Georgetown.  His net worth had declined over 40%.

 

According to Harriet Calhoon Ewing, Adam Poe was the most brilliant of the family, but mentally not as well balanced.  He probably made more money than his brothers, but lost it in ill advised ventures.  He died poor. [16]

 

Adam Poe was the oldest Mason in Beaver County at the time of his death. For years he had been a member of St. John’s Lodge, No. 219, Pittsburgh.  He was buried with full Masonic honors.  Glasgow lodge No. 485 conducted the funeral service. [17]

 

 

Summary.

It is astounding to think of the accomplishments of Adam W Poe and his brothers.  Born within a few years of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, they too were risk takers, doers.  My wish is that their story will live always and the memories will never die.

 

 

 

References.

 

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[1] Mollie Ebert Trimble Family Bible owned by Judy And Nicholas Maravich.
[2]  East Liverpool Crisis  11 Apr 1896  pg 2.
[3] Genealogy report at the Beaver Co Historical Society, Beaver Falls, PA.
[4]  East Liverpool Crisis  11 Apr 1896  pg 2.
[5] Adam Poe, Account of Adam Poe Sr River Experiences, 2 May 1887.
[6]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 145.
[7] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 342.
[8]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 40.
[9] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 493-494.
[10]  Capt Frederick Way, Jr., The Steamboating Poe Family, (S&D Reflector (Dec 1965)).
[11]  Ibid.
[12]  Ibid.
[13]  Capt Frederick Way, Jr., The Steamboating Poe Family, (S&D Reflector) (Dec 1965)).
[14] Ellis bailey Hawkins Letter to Mrs LH Wagner dated 16 Mar 1942.
[15]  Capt Frederick Way, Jr., The Steamboating Poe Family, (S&D Reflector) (Dec 1965)).
[16]  Capt Frederick Way, Jr., The Steamboating Poe Family, (S&D Reflector) (Dec 1965)).
[17]  East Liverpool Crisis  11 Apr 1896  pg 2.

 

Reverend Adam Poe was born along with his twin sister Sarah, on 12 Jul 1804 in Wayne Township, Columbiana County, OH.  He died on 26 Jun 1868 leaving his wife and three children.  Rev Adam Poe was the grandson of the famed Indian fighter Adam Poe.   His parents were Andrew Jackson Poe and Nancy Hoy.

 

Before his calling to the ministry, Rev Adam Poe worked with his brother Charles in the grain business along the Ohio & Erie Canal.  They operated a grain elevator near what is now known as Navarre, OH.  For the time they made a considerable amount of money.  Men who had accumulated wealth in those days became the natural “bankers” of the community making private loans to their business partners.  When economic problems struck the region in 1825, the Poe brothers went broke when their clients were unable to repay their loans.  Charles started a general store nearby Coshocton, OH.  Adam went into the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  “No man ever entered the cause with firmer faith, with greater singleness of purpose or with more unreserved devotion than did Adam Poe.” [1]

 

Having failed in the grain business, Adam became a poor country minister stationed in Delaware, OH.  In the summer of 1840, he decided the community needed a university.  He approached Judge Powell of Delaware with his idea.  Judge Powell owned an imposing four story inn called the Mansion House.  A ten acre lawn surrounded the Mansion House.  Rev Poe knew that the inn was not profitable since the stage from Columbus only arrived three times per week – a twenty-four hour trip at a cost of five dollars.  .  The original asking price for the Mansion House was $25,000.  Judge Powell finally agreed to the price of $9,500.  Rev Poe visited every person in Delaware, population around 900 in 1840, asking for contribution to fund a college.  One hundred seventy-two town’s people contributed $9,000.  Judge Powell would not sell for less then the agreed price.  Rev Poe gave him the $9,000 in cash contributions plus a personal note for $500.  In 1841, Ohio Wesleyan University was founded on faith and a preacher’s note. [2]

 

The people of Delaware, OH gave the property to the Ohio and Northern Ohio Conferences.  On 7 Mar 1842, the Ohio State Legislature granted a charter forever to be conducted on the most liberal principles and accessible to all religious denominations.  Beginning in a beautiful inn in 1841, in 1941  Ohio Wesleyan  was the largest privately endowed, church related, coeducational college in America. [3]

 

Daniel Poe, brother of Rev Adam Poe, was also a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but connected to Ohio Wesleyan .

 

 

 

References.

 

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[1]  John McClintock, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Harpers and brothers, 1889.

[2]  History of Stark County, (Baskin & Batty Historical Publishers, Chicago, 1881) p 515.

[3] Lula Welborn, Poe History, self printed 1974.

 

 

 

 

Copyright © Francis W Nash
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