Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 19: River Traffic and Famous Steamboats, 1916

For three-quarters of a century Perry County's only commercial connection with the outside world was by means of river transportation, and steamboating on the Ohio reached its zenith between 1850 and 1860. The magnitude it attained seems fairly incredible now, when only occasional sternwheelers of moderate capacity are seen, varied by powerful towboats from Pittsburg, or countless small gasoline craft. Of such Oriental luxury was the exterior and interior of many famous steamers in the olden time that detailed description might be reckoned an Arabian Nights' tale.

A lithographed drawing of Cannelton about 1850, showing six steamboats in sight at once, is not to be regarded as an artist's exaggeration, since not less than two-score packets were in regular trades below the Falls, passing Cannelton at stated intervals, and from eight to eighteen vessels lying at the landing at the same time was an ordinary occurrence at Louisville.

The Belle Key, shown in the picture of Cannelton, was a popular New Orleans liner out of Louisville where her owner and master. Captain Key, resided. Many men then commanded their own boats, just as at sea, and as the enlarged canal around the Falls was not yet in operation, Louisville was a point of portage between upper and lower river freight or passengers. At a good stage of water boats went over the Falls with perfect safety, but during a part of each year Portland was the practical head of navigation and a scene of amazing activity.

Orleans became historic in steamboat annals from the circumstance that every passenger and the last pound of freight was booked clear through, absolutely no way business having been accepted.

Captain Key had arrived from the South to find at Louisville two boats ahead of him, loading to leave for New Orleans within the next thirty-six hours. As another boat was right behind him, he considered that his chances were small for a profitable trip, so decided, after consulting with his agent, to make a swift run down and bring everything he could carry on his upward trip, expecting to find no other boats in the way at New Orleans.

Announcements were immediately posted in all hotels and public places that the Belle Key would leave at 5 p. m. without any way freight, but with all the passengers she could get, promising to put them in New Orleans inside of five days. When noised about town, hurried dray-loads of freight for New Orleans commenced rolling down the levee, besides supply wagons bearing all kinds of stores. Passengers already booked for the other laden steamers cancelled their reservations, engaging staterooms on the Belle Key, so that all was bustle on the wharf.

Many predictions of failure were uttered, as such a thing as a New Orleans boat leaving without a big freight cargo was unprecedented. But the captain became only more sanguine, arguing that a rising river and powerful current gave him great advantage for the entire distance, because if he did not lose time by accident or bad weather he would be moving at small expense compared with feeding passengers and burning fuel against the bank.

With over a hundred tons of freight and her cabin full of long-distance passengers, the Key left on time, cheers and whistles saluting her departure "flying light" in shipping parlance. All the way down she was reported as "splitting the river wide open." and her commander's optimism was fully justified. He not only made a trip unequalled in speed for the distance, but found no other Louisville boat in harbour at the Crescent City, so got all the freight he could L:tem the Mississippi with coming north, and his subsequent trips south were always with a cabin-load of contented passengers.

In the spring of 1853 the Reindeer, built a year before by Captain Montgomery for the New Orleans trade, was placed in line between Louisville and St. Louis, passing Cannelton on her down trip Thursday evening, and on Tuesday morning going up. She was a swift vessel, her hull a model of symmetry and the upper works tinseled with elaborate scroll-work both inside and out.

On all the boats stopping at the Cannelton wharf for coal or other business it was a custom among the passengers to take advantage of the delay by walking about the town, so that many public individuals of national importance were mentioned from time to time in the local paper as having stopped oif from such and such a boat. Henry Clay honoured the village April 18, 1851, while the Peytona was briefly at the landing. Julia Dean, described as "a good-looking popular actress," whose name is all but forgotten, was on board the Fashion, May 7, 1852.

James E. Murdock, the masterly tragedian and Shaksperean reader, was another tourist-visitor later, while the somewhat notorious Lola Montes, the beautiful Spaniard whose liaison with the King of Bavaria had been flagrantly flaunted all over Europe, attracted her usual attention when in Cannelton on St. Patrick's Day, 1853. She was en route to St. Louis to appear on the stage and had been put oif the Eclipse some few days before for refusing to take her meals with the other passengers, sending instead her maid and lapdog to occupy the seat reserved for her at Captain Sturgeon's table.

of her starboard boiler exploded as she was rounding out into the river from Boyd's wharfboat about ten o'clock at night. The report of the explosion was most startling and caused a general rush of citizens to the scene, which was at once frightful and heartrending. Despite the cries for help and the harrowing screams of the scalded sufferers, immediate assistance could not be rendered, as the high stage of water made it hazardous to approach the crippled steamer in small boats.

The Europa, however, chanced to be coming up and succeeded in getting the Reindeer under control, landing her some distance below. Citizens and physicians from both Cannelton and Hawesville hastened to the relief of the victims, most of whom were deck passengers and members of the boat's crew. Everything possible was done to alleviate the agony of the wounded, but all were fearfully injured, some having arms or legs broken, besides terrible burns, and the flesh of some was so scalded that it literally fell from the bones in attempting to remove their clothing.

Toward niorning the steamer Magnolia took the Reindeer across to Hawesville, where on the following day the bodies of the deceased were given reverent interment in one huge grave which is still pointed out in the Hawesville cemetery. Inspection which followed developed the fact that pure lead had been used in the flues instead of the alloy prescribed by government regulations.

Another accident, less fatal but far more spectacular, occurred at one o'clock in the morning of Saturday, March 30, 1860, when the steamer Kate May took fire at the Cannelton landing and burned to the water's edge. She was bound for Cincinnati on her return trip from the Arkansas River, under command of Captain J. L. Bruce, and carried among her cargo seven hundred bales of cotton, a part of which was consigned to the Indiana Cotton Mills. , taking two coal flats in tow when the fire, which had originated in the under tier of bales, was discovered. The flames spread with such rapidity around the stairways it became evident that efforts to save the boat would be only desperate folly, so Captain Bruce hastened to arouse the imperiled passengers, directing them to means of escape. His example of coolness and courage prevented any disorder, and the only life lost was that of the negro chambermaid. She had been one of the earliest awakened in the cabin, but was seen running to the forward end of the boat, whence it was supposed that she became terrified at the flames and leaped overboard into the water, thus drowning, unobserved. But little baggage was saved and the Cannelton people proved their liberal kindness by making up to the passengers much that they had lost in the way of clothes and other personal belongings.

Twenty-four sidewheelers forming the Louisville and New Orleans "Lightning" Line during the fifties should be named: The A. L. Shotwell, Antelope, Atlantic, Autocrat, Baltic, B. J. Adams, Chancellor, Diana, Eclipse, E. H. Fairchild, Empress, Fanny Bullitt, Fashion, H. D. Newcomb, James Montgomery, John Raine, Louisville, Magenta, Peytona, Robert J. Ward, T. C. Twitchell, Uncle Sam, Virginia and Woodford. Not one of these cost less than $200,000, yet all were marvellous money makers. The Fanny Bullitt, built at a cost of $210,000, nevertheless paid for herself during the first four months and before her career was ended by dismantling had earned her price fourteen and one-half times.

Greatest and grandest of all craft ever afloat on western waters was the Eclipse, whose name accurately indicated her character. Built in 1851-52 in New Albany, at a cost of $375,000, she passed Cannelton March 24, 1852, on her maiden trip to New Orleans, and her like had never been seen, nor will it be again beheld.

363 feet long, water wheels 42 feet in diameter, with 14 foot buckets, sustained by shafts of 22-inch diameter, weighing 13 tons each. Two large engines, of 36- inch cylinders with 11 foot stroke, generated the motive power, besides four smaller engines, for hoisting freight and pumping water. Eight large boilers were 321/2 feet in length by 42 inches diameter, besides seven cylinder boilers 35 feet by 12 inches. Her smokestacks measured a diameter of 85 inches and towered 86 feet above the hurricane deck.

The first passengers' cabin extended a length of 300 feet, and it was here that money had been squandered with lavishness unparalleled. Five thousand dollars was spent on the carpet alone, woven in Brussels from original designs and specifications sent from New Albany while the boat was being built. This carpet consisted of two immense rugs the full width of the cabin, extending fore and aft from the central gangway and woven with eyelets by which they could be buttoned down at the edges and readily lifted for cleaning.

Every piece of chinaware was made from special patterns by the Haviland potteries at Limoges, the smaller plates, cups and saucers bearing the initial "E" in gold near the edge, while the larger dishes were marked "Eclipse" in gilded letters. A flying golden eagle surmounted this as a crest upon the tall ware such as tureens, comport dishes and pitchers. The silver was all sterling, made to special order and engraved with name in ornate script, while all the cutlery and service was of the same costly description. Added to all this, the mere goldleaf used in decoration when building the boat amounted to $4,875, a single detail of the extravagance displayed throughout.

One hundred and twenty people made up the full crew in every capacity, under command of Captain E. T. Sturgeon, so the passengers were literally on a floating hotel, with servants trained to anticipate every wish. Among the officers for several seasons was a Perry County man, Martin Frank, then in his early twenties, who had spent six years in flatboating between his birthplace (Harrison County) and New Orleans, thus acquiring an intimate knowledge of both the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This experience, added to three years (1857-60) on board the Eclipse, made him a valuable auxiliary in the Federal gunboat service which he entered in 1861, after one year of farm life in Perry County, following his marriage with Amanda E. Hoyne, of Tobin Township. He v^^as present at the taking of Fort Donelson, at the surrender of Vicksburg, and his boat was near when Arkansas Post fell, having carried despatches to General Grant. The close of the war also terminated his career as pilot and he returned to farming, which he followed with financial success for many years until ready to retire from active life, then living in Cannelton until his death, in March, 1913.

Besides the all-surpassing splendour of her equipment, the Eclipse was the swiftest long-distance boat ever in the Mississippi Valley, and as such her record remains unbroken, disregarding numerous spurt records where fast steamers made extraordinary time over short courses. In 1853 occurred the memorable speed contest between the Eclipse and the A. L. Shotwell, the former running from the foot of Canal Street, New Orleans, to the Portland wharf, Louisville, in four days, nine hours and twenty minutes, the latter's time being exactly one hour longer. This race was even more thrilling than the famous contest of 1870 between the Robert E. Lee and Natchez, from New Orleans to Saint Louis, as the Eclipse and Shotwell were frequently in plain sight of each other for miles at a time, and thousands of dollars changed hands on the result.

An old ledger shows that on one trip during the spring of 1858 the bar receipts of the Eclipse were $2,302.20, so it is probable the poker games must have been for fabulous stakes, as twelve coal-boat pilots were on their way back to Pittsburg as passengers. A net profit of $6,621.10 on freight carried the same trip

Reading the menu of an ordinary day's dinner shows where the money went, since Lucullus himself could only with difficulty have designed a more elaborate banquet than one beginning with ox-tail soup, going through barbecued bass and sheepshead to six varieties of boiled and three of cold spiced meats, with choice of ten side-dishes, before the actual meat course was reached.

Eight kinds of roast were then offered, and under the head of "Green" appears the modest statement, "All Vegetables of the Season." The dessert is yet more bewildering with seven different pies, four puddings, four creams, blanc-mange, custard, charlotte russe, sherbets, two "frozettes," and a delicacy not known today called "charlexaice" ; to say nothing of five cakes, six kinds of fruit, three of nuts, claret and white wines and coffee.

Charles Dickens unfortunately visited America some years too early to enjoy a voyage aboard the Eclipse, else he would scarcely have described a steamboat dinner on the Ohio River as "a collation of funeral baked meats."

In the Saint Louis trade also were several very fine, fast boats, such as the Reindeer, Alvin Adams, Fashion, Fawn and two well-known sister steamers, the Northerner and the Southerner, both low-pressure and thus notable in their class, comparatively few of the kind proving successful, although the Indiana and Richmond were two other and later examples.

In the regular Memphis trade the Commercial was for years a particular local favourite because commanded by a Cannelton man, Captain Samuel Archer. His boat was noted during the War Between the States as the first one ever flying the Confederate flag clear from Memphis into the port of Louisville. Needless to say, this act of daring was not often repeated, nor

Quinine, worth its weight in gold and contraband besides, was smuggled through the lines in a rag doll, as belonging to their daughter, Mollie Archer (Mrs. Charles Schmuck, later Mrs. Hofmeister) , who accompanied her parents on several trips to Memphis, and the hem of her dress skirt was likewise laden with the priceless drug.

Nothing else recalls to the present generation the early glory of river days so vividly as the floating theatres which are still an important summer amusement feature to ail small towns along the Ohio. Dan Rice, the famous clovv'n and circus manager, claimed to have been the pioneer in the floating show business, a Thespian Daniel Boone blazing the trail for a line of followers whose end is not yet in sight sixty years afterward.

Before many river points were accessible by rail the circus traveled from town to town by boat, pitching its tents at some convenient spot near the river bank. An idea occurred to Rice that much time and needless labour was daily wasted setting tents and striking canvas, so he evolved and executed a plan of lashing together several flat-bottomed coal-barges, erecting his tent thereon with ring and tiers of seats just as on land, so that the same performance could be given. Instant success attended the first cruise of the odd craft.

"Excelsior," the blind white horse, displayed his marvellous education by answering questions, counting numbers, doing "sums" in addition or subtraction ; "Nellie," the jumping mare; "Bravo" and "Bonita," the chariot pair, all careened about the forty-foot arena as if its tanbark were spread upon Mother Earth. Annual trips were long continued, or until Rice's advancing years and failing health compelled abandon-

Another aggregation, the "Floating Palace," won even greater notoriety from the circumstance that it was the first to use illuminating gas on the river. Spaulding and Rogers were its owners and the theatre was towed by the steamer James Raymond, on board which the gas was generated. Pipes connected the two crafts, carrying the gas to great chandeliers suspended over the circus ring, in the menagerie department, dressing rooms and box office, as well as lighting the steamboat's cabin.

Elephants, giraffes, ostriches, polar bears, all mingled in the display ; a collection of wax figures rivalled Madame Tussaud's exhibit in London ; a panoramic view of the world was unrolled and over a hundred other oil paintings were on view, with relics of Egypt, Herculaneum and Pompeii ; a calliope with several octaves' range discoursed melodies then popular, with an accompaniment of sweet bells - happily, not "out of tune"; an alleged "Polish Refugee," Madame Olinza, performed "graceful, thrilling and terrific feats upon a tight-rope stretched at dizzy height in mid-air," meanwhile "playing exquisitely the Cornet-a-piston ;" an "incomparable genius," Mr. S. K. G. Nellis, who had ^'appeared with great eclat before the crowned heads and nobility of Europe," now wrote letters, shot bows and arrows, loaded and discharged pistols, played on the accordeon and violincello, cut out valentines and silhouettes, all

Specimens of his last named dexterity are yet to be seen, and a portrait cut from life of Anthony Crockett, a nephew to "Davy" Crockett, which Nellis had cut out July 12, 1856, was shown at a Woman's Club loan exhibit at Hawesville in the spring of 1915.

But even more wonderful than animals, acrobats, or horseback riders jumping through tissue-paper covered hoops was the novel illuminant whereby these sights were beheld, and it is an established fact that many thousands of people down the Ohio Valley gazed on a burning gas-jet for the first time in their lives on board Spaulding and Rogers' Floating Palace.