The Capt Thomas Washington Poe biography was updated yet it still is incomplete. Information from the Certificates of Enrollment for his later steamboats will not be added until I have made time to review the appropriate volumes at The National Archives.
Copyright © 2014 Francis W Nash
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At a local library, I found a copy of “The Material Culture of Steamboat Passengers” by Annalies Corbin. The book published in 2000 was an archaeological study of the artifacts from the steamers Bertrand and Arabia. More work like this report should be conducted on other steamers lost on the Missouri.
In Appendix H, Ms Corbin listed the steamers on the Missouri River. Steamers owned and operated from Georgetown, PA named on the list included:
(1) Amelia Poe
(2) Ida Stockdale
(3) Yorktown
(4) Mollie Ebert
(5) Nick Wall
(6) Georgetown
Several Georgetown steamboats were omitted from the list. Most notably, the str Sallie was omitted, or confused with other boats with the same name. The Sallie docked at the levee in Ft Benton in 1868, 1869, and 1870.
Two other Georgetown owned steamers were also omitted. Poe family records indicate that the Financier No 2 and Ella worked on the Kansas River in 1854 -55 with the Georgetown. The Poe brothers had three boats operating on the Missouri and Kansas Rivers before the outbreak of the Civil War.
My final contributions to Appendix H are three boats named by Capt Adam Poe who travelled to Missouri in 1837. During his trip he steamed from St Louis to Glasgow on a boat named Izora. His original fare was with Capt Kyser who had a boat named Shawnee, but the water was too low so he booked passage on the Izora. After surveying his land, he returned to St Louis aboard the str Zora.
If ever Appendix H is updated, these boats should be added.
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
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“Fort Benton on the Upper Missouri is a small town with a big history.” That is the beginning of the introduction of a delightful book by Ken Robison on the history of Ft Benton. The book, Fort Benton, includes photographs and postcards from Mr Robison’s collection. One image, special to me, was a steamboat passenger boarding pass for the Montana and Idaho Transportation Line. The St Louis based line was owned by John G Copelin and his father-in-law John J Roe. According to Mr Robison, the line dominated the Missouri River commerce from 1864-68.
Montanna and Idaho Transportation Line Boarding Pass (The Ken Robison Collection)
Look carefully at the names of the pool of boats used by the line. Thomas W Poe was the captain of the Amelia Poe and George W Ebert was the captain of the Yorktown. In 1867, one other Georgetown packet docked at Ft Benton: the Ida Stockdale in the first of five seasons. Captains Thomas S Calhoon and Jackman T Stockdale were partners and Capt Grant Marsh was the master in 1867.
The Amelia Poe docked at the Ft Benton levee on 9 Jun with 183 tons of freight and 50 passengers. Eighty-five days from St Louis. The Yorktown arived at Ft Benton on 14 Jun (84 days from St Louis) with 210 tons of freight and 15 passengers. The Nymph No 2 arrived on 20 Jul (118 days from St Louis); the GA Thompson 30 Jun; the Deer Lodge 5 Jun. The arrival of the Bertha is not recorded in “Fort Benton The World’s Innermost Port” by Joel Overholser.
Thomas Stevenson Calhoon was arguably the most famous Georgetown packet owner and captain. His career was the longest. He had probably as much experience on the Missouri as Capt Marsh Grant with whom he worked on the Ida Stockdale. My biographical data for Thomas S Calhoon has just been added a page under Biographical Data and Tales.
Christmas Eve Dinner Invitation (Anna L Nash And John F Nash Collection)
This dinner invitation from the officers of the Katie Stockdale to the Jacob Poe family is an interesting piece of steamboat memorabilia. The Katie Stockdale was built in 1877. Thomas S Calhoon celebrated his fiftieth birthday inn 1884. Jacob died in 1891. So the Christmas Eve surprise oyster dinner for Thomas S Calhoon took place between 1877 and 1890. I am also surprised the Katie Stockdale was docked at Georgetown Landing so late in the year.
Oysters were an expensive delicacy, and …. they were eaten the year round. An ‘oyster express/ a light wagon loaded with live oysters imbedded in straw and kept moistened with salt water, made through trips from Baltimore to Pittsburgh. The horses were changed frequently, but the driver drove all night without stopping. At Pittsburgh, the oysters were transferred to swift boats and shipped to Cincinnati, where they were placed in tanks of salt water and corn meal and kept alive for months.” [1]
References.
[1] Stanton C Crawford and Mary C Brown, Pittsburgh as Viewed from Down River, (Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, Vol 47, No 4, Oct 1964), p 306.
In the fall of 2006, I inherited a journal recounting a lively steamboat trip on the upper Missouri River in 1869. The author, Nancy Ann (Poe) Ebert, was my great great grandmother. The trip was one continuous adventure. It is a bit of American History that I shall attempt to bring to life.
Nancy Ann Poe ebert Journal Segment 1 Front
Only two journals, daily written, chronicle that 1869 Missouri River season. The styles could not differ more, yet their comparison provides meaningful insights. In his journal Nelson G Edwards, first clerk of the steamer Henry M Shreve, was objective. Nancy Poe Ebert was observant and emotional. My great great grandmother wrote about loneliness, fear, flowers, disappointment, beauty, and Indians. Indians boarded their steamer for three days causing much anguish. Tracking the two journals, the sidewheeler Henry M Shreve was 8-14 days ahead of the sternwheeler Mollie Ebert at common positions per date along the Missouri.
My transcription of the journal is a rendering with spelling errors and missing punctuation uncorrected. Its length is 59 pages covering 57 grueling days.
Nancy Poe Ebert Journal Segment 2 Front (Anna L and John F Nash Collection
Investigations of the inherited journal and boxes of old photographs and letters led to other stories about the men and women of Georgetown, PA. During the Golden Age of Steamboats which some describe as the period from 1850-1870, Georgetown produced some far famed steamboat captains. Each captain and each steamer has its tale. At a time when railroad transportation meant traveling mostly in upright chairs on unheated soot filled cars that rocked and pitched their way along state imposed “standard” gauge track, steamboats were admired for their luxury, their comfort, their ornamentation — in a word – their style. Steamboats also out performed the rival railroads during that period. More troops and supplies were transported by packets than railroad cars during the Civil War. These Georgetown captains and pilots with their civilian crews were contracted and impressed into service by the Army Quartermaster which led to many tales. The Georgetown captains owned and operated approximately fifty packets during this Golden Age.
Local histories are also numerous, such as the grisly death of a steamboat captain far from home in April 1850, a Paul Revere like ride to warn the area of the danger of attack from Morgan’s Raiders in July 1863, a baseball game with Honus Wagner and his All Stars in August 1924, etc. I am a retailer, not an inventor, of these tales. Vexingly, their stories have been virtually ignored by generations of historians.
Their story was not a story of my choosing, but what could make a better story!