Posts Tagged ‘mark twain’

Vintage Book

Sunday, October 4th, 2015

Transportation in the Ohio Valley fly leaf.

My reading this week has been “A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley” by Charles Henry Ambler published in 1931.  The first edition history was lent to me by Michael Libenson who is the great great grandson of Capt Thomas Stevenson Calhoon.   The many comments and corrections hand written in the margins of the book make this book special.  Those comments were written by Harriet Darrington (Calhoon) Ewing (b ? d 1950), the daughter of Capt Thomas S Calhoon and great grandAunt of Michael Libenson. Her writing is the closest thing we have to a voice into these steamboat captains lives.  Mrs WH Ewing dated her copy of the book Oct 26, 1931.

 

Transportation in the Ohio Valley p173.

 

Along with her notes, Harriet D Calhoon taped a response letter from CH Ambler to the front flyleaf.  The response, on West Virginia University letterhead, was dated 13 Aug 1930.  The content of the letter indicated that the exchange of information was too late to be included in the forthcoming book.  Whether a meeting or additional correspondence between them ever took place is unclear.  There is no record of such a meeting and no updated edition of the book.  

 

 

 

 

Transportation in the Ohio Valley p293.

 

Harriet D Calhoon is well known to those with long memories.  Often Capt Frederick Way used her comments in articles about Georgetown in the S&D Reflector.  See Vol 2 No 4 Dec 1965 p10,12.

My final comment/concern is how many books similar to this history written by captains or pilots have I missed?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2015  Francis W Nash  All Rights Reserved

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

 

 

 

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More Mark Twain and Steamboats

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

While training as a cub pilot, Mark Twain convinced his brother Henry to pursue a career on the river.  Henry was fatally scalded when the boilers of the packet he was working on exploded.  Henry died on 21 Jun 1858.   The packet was the str Pennsylvania.  Twain held himself responsible for his younger brother’s death for the rest of his life.

 

The str Pennsylvania, which originally ran from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, was involved in the Wheeling Bridge Case.  After that infamous gesture and response from the Wheeling landing, the str Pennsylvania went into the St Louis and New Orleans trade.  Her boilers exploded near Helena, AK on Sunday morning 13 Jun 1858.  Henry Clemens suffered for more than a week before succumbing to the pain of his burns.

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Mark Twain and Georgetown

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Samuel L Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River before the Civil War.   For two years, Twain served as a cub pilot under Capt Horace E Bixby while he learned the 2,000 miles of the ever-changing Mississippi.

 

Twain’s connection to Georgetown, PA was Horace E Bixby.  Bixby worked on the steamer Sallie as one of her pilots at least one season on the upper Missouri River.  The Sallie, a sternwheel packet owned by Capt Thomas S Calhoon and Capt Jackman T Stockdale of Georgetown, PA,  docked at the levee at Ft Benton three years running: 1868, 1869, and 1870.  I do not know which year, or years, Capt Bixby worked.

 

During the Civil War Capt Bixby was the personal pilot for Flag-Officers of the Mississippi Flotilla, Foote and Davis.

 

 

Copyright © 2010 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved

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

 

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More Mark Twain on Steamboats

Friday, February 26th, 2010

“I think the most enjoyable of all races is a steamboat race… two red-hot steamboats raging along, neck and neck, straining every nerve… that is to say, every rivet in the boilers – quaking and straining and groaning stem to stern, spouting white steam from the pipes, pouring black smote from the chimneys, raining down sparks, parting the river into a long streak of hissing foam – this is a sport that makes a body’s liver curl with enjoyment. A horse race is pretty colorless and tame in comparison.”

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History in Homes

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

I have been experiencing a problem with large pages.  For an unknown reason I could not add photos or links to one large page.  To solve my problem, I split the page entitled ”It Used to be a River Town” into a history of Georgetown and a history of the steamboat captains homes.  The data about the homes has been placed in another page named “History in Homes.”   I have added more photos and as times permits, I will include copies of some of the deeds for the properties. 

 

There is one fun event description added.  The story about the preparations for the 35th wedding anniversary of Mollie Ebert and John A Trimble is notable.  The redecoration of their parlors by a “force of artists” from Pittsburgh, their elegant supper at 10:00 PM, gifts exchanged…  The details of the story were taken from a newspaper clipping from an unidentified local paper.  I will try to determine the name of the newspaper.

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