Posts Tagged ‘missouri river’

Source Documents

Wednesday, January 8th, 2014

A friend, and Poe relative, introduced me to the personal diary of Isaac T Goodnow.  In her research of Rev Adam Poe who was a cofounder of Ohio Wesleyan University, she crosses into the Poe steamboat land. 

 

Isaac T Goodnow helped establish the community of Manhattan, KN in the 185o’s.  His diaries are an interesting read.  Kansas was the topic of the day.  Slavery was the main issue.  Isaac T Goodnow traveled from Boston to Kansas at least once a year.  Isaac T Goodnow knew Rev Adam Poe who arrived in KN via steamboat to attend a religious conference.

 

In Issac T Goodnow’s travels, he mentioned steamboats often.  However, he rarely named them.  Two daily journal entries are listed below where he named the packets built by Georgetown men:

 

            (1)  str Financier.  At the time of the journal entry, Goodnow would have steamed on str Financier II built for Capt Adam Poe in 1850.   Capt Adam ran the str Financier II for three years and then sold it.  In 1855, he was commanding the str Ella which was also working on the lower Missouri River. 

 

            (2)  str Admiral.    In 1857 Capt Jackman T STockdale was a partner in the ownership of the str Admiral, At that time it is unclear whether he was its captain or pilot. 

 

The Isaac T Goodnow diaries are a fantastic first hand account of the violence in Kansas in the troubled 1850′s.   For me, they also provide source information that confirms my statements that Georgetown steamboats were working at the sharp and dangerous edge of our frontier.

 

 

 

 

Diary of Isaac T. Goodnow

 

Transcribed by staff and volunteers of the Riley County Historical Museum from a typescript of the original diary held in the collection of the Kansas State Historical Society.

 

 

Thursday, 8/16/55         

            Br. Wm. E. left this morning in the steamer Financier for Kansas City.  Hope to see him back soon.  Very rainy.  Drove to Judge W-s 7 miles to dinner.  P.M. rode on to Mr Roberts’ an Illinois man.  Has 120 acres corn.

 

 

Thursday 11/12/57

            Bought 2 land warrants $281.60  Saw my old friend Hugh M. Thompson, formerly of Greenfield.  Did some considerable business, & at 3. P.M. started by Pacific R.R. for Jefferson City, arriving at 9. & taking the steamer Admiral for Leavenworth City.  Lay by till morning on account of the darkness.  Rested tolerably well.  Rainy, P.M. & Evening.

 

 

Copyright © 2014 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved

 

Thomas Washington Poe

Friday, March 29th, 2013

If there is a “night shade” hovering over any stone in the Georgetown Cemetery, it would be the spirit of Capt Thomas Washington Poe for good reason.   Capt Thomas Poe was arguably the most far-famed and ill-fated steamboat captain from Georgetown, PA.  Thomas Washington Poe was born in 1819 in New Lisbon, Columbiana Co, OH.  He died on 31 Dec 1881 aboard the str Fearless on his way to Pittsburgh.

 

Capt Thomas W Poe with wives, Phebe and Martha Jane (F Nash Collection)

Misfortune paid its respects to Capt Thomas Poe many times and often far from home.  On 11 May 1855  the str Georgetown was fatally snagged at Bellefontaine Bluffs on the Missouri in route to a military post.  The  str Georgetown was owned by Thomas W Poe and other partners from Georgetown, PA.  He was the principal owner of the str Clara Poe which went up in flames during the Civil War - burned by rebel forces on 17 Apr 1865 at Eddyville on the Cumberland River.  He also owned the str Amelia Poe which was a complete loss when snagged on the upper Missouri river on 24 May 1868 and salvaged by 1,500 riotous Indians.  And he was the

Thomas Poe Illustration in Life on the Mississippi

owner of the str  Nick Wall which met a tragic end on the Mississippi River near Napoleon, AK on 18 Dec 1870.  Here a grisly incident occurred that Mark Twain retold in “Life on the Mississippi”.  The boat struck a snag and sunk rapidly.  Though injured himself by the falling roof, Capt Thomas W Poe attempted to save his wife trapped in a stateroom.  He chopped a hole in the roof with an ax striking the unfortunate Martha Jane (Troxell) Poe in the head.  Martha Jane Poe, fatally wounded, was returned to Georgetown for burial.

 

Although Thomas W died on 31 Dec 1881 aboard the str Fearless on his way to Pittsburgh,  his spirit lived on ― in the courts.  The steamer sank eight months later on 26 Aug 1882 on the Missouri.    The legal case regarding the property loss was finally decided by the Supreme Court of Missouri in Oct 1887― not in favor of the Poe heirs.  This verdict feels perfectly consistent with the trend of Thomas Washington Poe’s lfe.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2013 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved

Capt Adam Poe’s Book

Saturday, January 19th, 2013

In writing about his river experiences telling about himself, he was also telling the story about the frontier and expansion to the West.  Capt Adam Poe was contributing to the growing body of literature about the West.  At that time Americans were avid readers of “Westerns”.  These novels, and epic tales of the Indian Wars,  were the core of the motion picture industry through the twentieth century – the struggle between good and evil and survival in a lawless society. 

 

Make time to read The True History of… by Capt Adam Poe.  The pages have been scanned and loaded for your entertainment.  It is a wonderful story.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2013 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved

Lower Missouri River Commerce

Friday, December 28th, 2012

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

History is a Story

Friday, June 8th, 2012

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.

  

Democratic Banner (Davenport, Iowa)
1852  March  26
 

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

The Wreck of the str Fearless.

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

The Army Corp of Engineers Kansas City District published map of the Missouri River in Dec 2000 that shows the changing of the river channel over the last century.  This map is a composite of a map used by Capt HM Chittenden in 1897 and a more recent river channel map.  For historians, the map is interesting because it identified the approximate locations of steamboats wrecks.  Capt HM Chittenden located the sites in 1897.  From his historical research prior to 1962, Dr EB Trail also identified the sites of the same steamboat wrecks.  Their findings differ. 

Kansas City District Corp of Engineers dated Dec 2000

Kansas City District Corp of Engineers dated Dec 2000

 

For me the map is interesting because the site of the wreck of the str Fearless was identified.  The str Fearless was operated by Capt Thomas W Poe for a short time before his death.  Although he died in 31 Dec 1881 aboard the str Fearless on his way to Pittsburgh and the steamer sank eight months later on 26 Aug 1882, his spirit lived on in the courts.  The legal case regarding the property loss was finally decided by the Supreme Court of Missouri in Oct 1887. 

 

 

Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved

Lives Remembered

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

One-hundred-thirty years ago today, Thomas W Poe died (31 Dec 1881) while on a trip from St Louis to Pittsburgh aboard the str Fearless.  In 1880, Capt Thomas W Poe bought the str Fearless to transport grain between Kansas City and St Louis. 

 

The str Fearless was a large heavy-draft Mississippi River stern-wheel tow boat built in Pittsburg PA in 1865 according to Benjamin M Laughlin.  It was 160 x 30′ rated at 395 tons with two engines (20″x8′) and five boilers (26′ x 40″)- with a working steam pressure of 150lbs.   When it sank on August 26, 1882 in the Missouri River about 40 miles from its mouth near Lower Bonhomme Island, the boat was owned by the Kansas City Barge Line.  The captain of the boat at the time it sank is unknown.

 

Happy New year.

 

 

Copyright © 2011 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved

The Internet Delivers Its Surprises

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

Many people have been quite generous with their historical information and memorabilia.  Most recently, Mr Russell Weisman, a Senior Historical Preservation Specialist for the state of Missouri, shared new information on Thomas W Poe and his towboat, the str Fearless.  Mr Weisman described Thomas W Poe’s efforts to get into the grain barge transportation business between Kansas City and St Louis in 1880. 

 

I wish Mr Weisman the best of luck in his attempt to locate the wreck of the str Fearless  which sank in the Missouri River about 40 miles from its mouth near Lower Bonhomme Island on 26 Aug 1882.  Thomas W Poe died eight months earlier on 31 Dec 1881 while on a trip to Pittsburgh with the str Fearless.

 

Based on this information, I will update my Thomas W Poe biography and research Kersey Coates and the Mississippi Valley Transportation Co and Kansas City Barge Line.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2011 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved

Westering

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Westering was a concept developed early in American history declaring that our fate was to rule the land from sea to sea – never mind those already dwelling there.  The chant from our leaders was “Westward Ho!”  The Ohio River provided westward passage for early explorers, trappers, settlers, and travelers. 

 

Westering was only logical.  Because of the geography of the Ohio and Missouri Rivers, it was the greatest theme of our early expansion.

More Golden Highway 1866

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

Thomas S Calhoon, as first clerk of the str Amelia Poe, sighted 16 steamboats on his trip up river and 30 boats down river. From St Louis, the trip to Ft Benton was 72 ½ days; down 57 days with three days to discharge freight and passengers.

Thomas S Calhoon left Georgetown, Pa on 12 Mar 1866 and returned to his home on 19 Aug 1866. That was 160 days on the river = almosst half the year.  He took approximately three weeks in Georgetown before he shipped out on 5 Oct 1866.

I have added his journal entries for the down river trip to the page TS Calhoon’s Book 1866.