It is important to acknowledge that the Georgetown steamboat owners and their crews were in the river freight and passenger business at the sharp and dangerous, and always moving, frontier edge of our nation. Without them and men like them, the development of the interior of our nation would have been delayed many years.
I have added a page to tell their story: Lower Missouri River.
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved
In the hand-made book by Mrs Lillian May (Poe) Wagner, I found a fun newspaper clipping of the Golden Anniversary of Jacob Poe and Mary Ann Ebert “held at their comfortable residence” on 27 Dec 1888 in Georgetown, PA. I do not know the newspaper that published the information. The author of the article was John A Trimble, my great grandfather.
Mary and Jacob Poe Golden Wedding Anniversary 1888 (Anna L and John F Nash Collection)
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
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Last weekend I was in Georgetown, PA, packing books that my sister and I donated to local libraries. In an old box of books, we discovered a “home made” book by Mrs Lillian May Poe Wagner.
Lillian May Poe Book -Cover (Anna L and John F Nash Collection)
The book was a bible study book – The Divine Plan of the Ages. Lillian May Poe pasted photographs, newspaper clippings, obituaries, postcards, business cards, and hand written notes over the pages of the study book. The items are dated from 1904 to 1936.
I will scan and load the important pages – pages with photographs of the Georgetown steamboat captains and their wives, wedding announcements, etc.
Lillian May Poe Book - Obit (Anna L and John F Nash Collection)
Lillian May Poe Book - Family Photos (Anna L and John F Nash Collection)
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
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The biography of Capt Jacob Poe has been updated. Data acquired from the Certificates of Enrollment for the port of Pittsburgh at the National Archives has been included for some of the early Poe family steamboats. By “early” I mean before 1848 when Capt Way’s Packet Directory starts its history of steamboats.
Capt Jacob Poe was also in command of several keel boats. I intend to add data on these Georgetown keel boats in the near future.
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved
I intend to refocus my attention on the core purpose of this website. It exists to make public the journal of Nancy Ann (Poe) Ebert. Her personal journal of the trip with her husband, Capt George W Ebert, on the upper Missouri River in 1869 was a bit of American History that I believe should be shared with river scholars. I also want to share the stories of the steamboat men from Georgetown, PA. The most remarkable and unique source information that I have been able to share has been the hand written book by Capt Benjamin Mackall Laughlin. That book identified 42 steamboats built between 1832-1838 in the Pittsburgh region that were not listed by Lytle and Holdcamper.
To begin my renewed concentration on steamboats, a page named Str Yorktown b1853 has been loaded. It was the second boat named Yorktown owned and operated by the Poe family. To differentiate the two vessels, I added the build date specified on the initial Certificate of Enrollment in the title of the page. Capt Way’s Packet Directory number was considered, as another distinguishing feature, but I preferred the build date because the Poes ran boats with duplicate names before 1848, the year Way’s Packet Directory began its list.
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved
Indian Rocks Postcard ca 1908 (Judy and Nick Maravich Collection)
History is evident everywhere in Georgetown, PA. An arrowhead churned up in a newly turned garden, a faded diary or old deeds in a local attic, a log cabin discovered under clapboards, the Indian petroglyphs on the rocks on the river bank opposite Georgetown ― these and many other things capture our interest in what is often thought of as the long dead past. Homes and churches of another century line the streets of Georgetown. Much is worth celebrating. Much gives us a sense of continuity.
Francis Nash on Deserted Market St (Beaver Valley Times 4 Jun 1955) (Anna L and John F Nash Collection)
Every community also likes to consider itself distinctive. Georgetown, too, has that notion. Its history shines with many notable events and achievements. In this the two hundred-nineteenth year since its founding, Georgetown can point to its homes and churches with pride. The town deserves its reputation as a “good place to raise children”. However, its ferry, hotels, taverns, general stores, barber shop, tea house, photography studio, and school are bygone. Presently, it faces an uncertain future that I hope will not reflect less brightly. The sand digging operations on either side of town, the expansion of the waste product reservoir for the bituminous coal electric generating plants in Shippingport, PA, and the Marcellus Shale drilling platform on the hill above the town make for an unhappy condition in as much as the welfare of the town will no doubt be dominated by one of these industrial concerns.
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved
The name Reardon is an important piece in the early history of Georgetown, PA. A page with a brief biography of John Reardon has been loaded. And a transcript of his Revolutionary War pension application, JR Pension Transcription, has been loaded to give body to his biography. The pension application is particularly significant because of the people referenced, such as Ensign Andrew Poe, Simon Girty, and Col William Crawford. The lives of these important figures of the frontier were intertwined as history was being made.
The Reardon name also identified the land on which Georgetown, PA would be laid out. The Forgotten Frontier Fort is another significant fragment of that early history. Putting these pieces together, each into its proper place, the whole picture emerges.
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved
Detailed information provided on the Certificates of Enrollment changed trough the years. The following certificates for the str Financier specify the essential changes in the life of the packet. The first certificate dated 21 May 1845 indicated that the str Financier was built for and or by Capt Adam Poe of Georgetown, PA. The next certificate dated 20 May 1846 indicated that the rights to operate the vessel had been renewed. The third certificate dated 04 Jun 1846 indicated a change of owners.
Str Financier
| Owners and Partners | Share | Vol: | 6628 |
| Adam Poe | Enroll No : | 11 | |
| Jacob Poe | Cert Date: | 21 May 1845 | |
| Thomas W Poe | Cert Type:: | ||
| George Calhoon | Build Locn: | ||
| Andrew Poe | Build Date: | ||
| George Poe | Master | Adam Poe | |
| Washington Ebert |
Str Financier
| Owners and Partners | Share | Vol: | 6629 |
| Adam Poe | Enroll No : | 68 | |
| Jacob Poe | Cert Date: | 20 May 1846 | |
| Thomas W Poe | Cert Type:: | Admeasurement | |
| George Calhoon | Build Locn: | Pittsburgh, PA | |
| Andrew Poe | Build Date: | 1845 | |
| George Poe | Master | Adam Poe | |
| Washington Ebert |
Str Financier
| Owners and Partners | Share | Vol: | 6629 |
| William J Kountz | Enroll No : | 69 | |
| Geo Black | Cert Date: | 04 Jun 1846 | |
| Robert S Hays | Cert Type:: | Admeasurement | |
| Clark and Thaw | Build Locn: | Pittsburgh, PA | |
| Build Date: | 1845 | ||
| Master | William J Kountz | ||
Note the new owners of the str Financier. William J Kountz was a steamboat man from Pittsburgh who was later charged with providing river transportation for troops and supplies during the Civil War. His clashes with Gen US Grant were famous. He wrote to Gen Halleck who was the commander of the western theater headquartered in St Louis that Gen Grant was a “glorious drunk” who should be court marshaled. Admiral Kountz was reported to be a teetotaler.
Thaw was William Thaw who had interests in the western PA canal transportation and was one of several who established the first Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line in 1842. Later he was associated with the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad (PRRs) which was a significant player in the the Molly Maguires sensational trials. Twenty Mollies were prosecuted, and hanged, by the president of PRR and chief prosecutor on the testimony of one Pinkerton agent. The president of the PRR and acting prosecutor was Franklin B Gowen who stood to gain financially from the destruction of the striking coal miner union.
So much fun!
On 12 Oct 1850, the boilers of the str Financier exploded near Alton, IL causing the death of the captain’s son and second engineer. Others were scalded. [1]
References.
[1] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 165.
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved
.
It’s half past Halloween or so, and the Georgetown Cemetery has had an unusual high number of visitors in Jun 2012. I know not why?!? Maybe it is a derivative of the crew of Kent State ghost busters who captured on film an evening at the cemetery.
The Ghost Box video is a fun view. My bio of the cemetery is a more revered read. Undoubtedly, video always trumps paper.
The Georgetown Cemetery List was a found-by-chance document included in the inherited boxes of documents and photos. I do not know the author of the list nor its date. However, it appears to be accurate.
Of great interest to me is the new threat to the cemetery. That threat is the potential harm to the cemetery, and Georgetown, from the blasting associated with local fracking. A drilling platform will soon be built near the cemetery.
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved
Ms Barbara Macleish has introduced me to the reference “Chronicling America”.
About Chronicling America
Chronicling America is a Website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. Supported by NEH, this rich digital resource will be developed and permanently maintained at the Library of Congress. An NEH award program will fund the contribution of content from, eventually, all U.S. states and territories.
So far 737 newspapers from 1836 to 1922 have been digitized. Unfortunately, western PA is not well represented. Fortunately OH, MO, and MT along the inland rivers are well represented during the steamboat era. No doubt I will be spending much time searching these references.
A good example of the findings from “Chronicling America” is the little known str Glaucus. The str Glaucus information provided by the original Certificate of Enrollment appears below followed by Capt Way’s entry in his Packet Directory. :
Str Glaucus
| Owners and Partners | Share | Vol: | 6633 |
| T Harvey Miller | Enroll No : | 89 | |
| Thom S Clarke | Cert Date: | 6 Jul 1849 | |
| Wm Thaw | Cert Type:: | Enrollment | |
| Geo Black | Build Locn: | W Elizabeth, PA | |
| Robert S Hays | Build Date: | 1849 | |
| Wm Bingham | Master | GW Ebbert | |
| Wilson Miller | |||
| GW Ebbert |
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 partner and its master. The Glaucus met a fiery end on 30 Mar 1852 in Montrose, IA. [1]
In addition to this original source info and Capt Way’s history, Ms Macleish has directed me to newspaper articles found in Chronicling America, as well as other more direct routes.
Gallipolis Journal 7 Aug 1851
By the tremendous hail storm
Saturday night, the steamer Glaucus
had her chimneys blown over, and
cabins badly shattered.
Hannibal Journal 25 Mar 1852 (Fri)
You may have heard of the loss of
the steamer Glaucus – if not, I will
tell you that she was burned at
Montrose on Friday last, while lying
there ice-bound. She belonged to the
Keokuk Packet Company, and was
insured for $5,000.
BURNING OF THE GLAUCUS.—On Saturday last, the Steamer Glaucus, on her upward trip from Keokuk, while lying ice-bound at Montrose, was entirely destroyed by fire. The fire originated in the steerage, and spread so rapidly as to prevent the recovery of anything, excepting the books and papers of the boat—even the passengers’ baggage was all destroyed. The Glaucus, we understand, was not intended to be run as one of the regular mail boats, between this point and Keokuk, but was to have been kept as a reserve, to run in case of need.
Day in history for March 28, 2002 – Quad-Cities Online
150 years ago: Passengers from the Lamartine, just arrived, informed us that the packet Glaucus burned about 11 a.m. yesterday while it was lying ice- bound at Montrose, Iowa. Not even the baggage of the passengers was saved
Notice the differences in the date the str Glaucus burned. The Hannibal Journal indicated 18 Mar, the Democratic Banner – 20 Mar, the Quad Cities Online – 27 Mar, and Capt Way – 30 Mar. Capt Way is my go to guy. If he writes something, then it is true, even if it was not.
This confusion of time, and sometimes identity in other cases, makes an accurate presentation of history difficult. Early American history is a story. How much is fact and how much is legend does not really matter, for it did certainly happen.
References.
[1] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 188.
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved