Capt Andrew Hague Parr

Andrew Hague Parr was the son of Abraham S Parr and Mary Ann Hague.  He is quite probably the most accomplished unknown steamboat captain from Georgetown.

 

Abraham S Parr, a blacksmith in Georgetown, PA , died on 30 Dec 1839 aged 39 years.  His wife, Mary Ann Hague, was born in Hagerstown, MD on 17 Jun 1791.  She died in Georgetown on 9 Oct 1866.  By her first husband, Frederick Ebert, she was the mother of five children including Capt George Washington Ebert.  By her second husband, Abraham S Parr, she had eight children.

 

Capt Andre H Parr and Elizabeth Calhoon (Collection of Anna L and John F Nash)

Capt Andre H Parr and Elizabeth Calhoon (Collection of Anna L and John F Nash)

Andrew H Parr was born on 14 Jan 1831 in Georgetown and at the age of fourteen (14) began a career on the river as a cabin boy.  On 16 Feb 1859 he married  the daughter of James Hutchinson Calhoon, Elizabeth Hutchinson (Lizzie) Calhoon.  Lizzie was born on 15 Nov 1839.  Together they had eleven children: Mary Ann, Ida Stockdale, John Franklin, Flora Belle, John Quincy Adams, Parthenia Calhoon, Jackman Taylor Stockdale, Myrtilla May, Elizabeth Risher, Homer Stockdale Knowles, and Kate Virginia.

 

Capt Andrew Hague Parr (Anna L and John Nash Collection)

Capt Andrew Hague Parr (Anna L and John Nash Collection)

Andrew H Parr had a long and distinguished career on the rivers serving in positions from a cabin boy to captain.  During the Civil War, he was a pilot on the str Melnotte working on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers transporting troops and supplies.  Capt Richard Calhoon, another Georgetown steamboat captain, owned and commanded the Melnotte during the Civil War.  The Melnotte was in the Army service from Apr 1, 1863 till Jul 16, 1865.  In Jun 1863, the Melnotte was used to transport artillery pieces and 300 men to counter a rebel force, Morgan’s Raiders, purported to have crossed the Ohio River.  [1]

 

Capt Andrew H Parr also worked for JC Risher and Co for more than sixteen years as captain of the tow boat Smoky City on the trade route between Pittsburgh and Louisville.  [2]  With the famed str Smoky City, he transported “fields” of coal down the river.  The coal commerce declined after 1901 when the Carnegie Steel Co was purchased by JP Morgan and renamed US Steel Co of America.

 

A lifelong Republican, the Andrew H Parr family were also members of the Georgetown Methodist Episcopal Church.  Andrew H Parr died on 16 Feb 1907 and his wife Lizzie died on 13 Apr 1902.  Both are buried in the Georgetown Cemetery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References.

 


[1]  Charles Dana Gibson and E Kay Gibson, Dictionary of Transports and Combatant Vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Union Army 1861 – 1868, (Ensign Press, Cambridge, MA 1995), p 223.
[2]  Joseph H Bausman, History of Beaver County, A Warner and Co, 1888, p 879.

 

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