Ohio History Journal

THE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE OHIO.

 

 

NELSON W. EVANS.

How many of the intelligent reading people of the state

know when the first steamboat plowed the waters of the Ohio?

Where was it built, its dimensions and cut, the name of the

owner and of the boat, and the particulars of its first voyage?

To Nicholas J. Roosevelt* belongs the honor of first building a

steamboat, and with it navigating the Ohio. But before telling

the story, it would be well to observe the condition of navigation

on the Ohio before steamboats were introduced. The crafts used

first by the white men, and until the time of the steamboat, were

keel boats, barges and flat boats. There was a class of rivermen

at that day, as now, whose sole business was to navigate the

Ohio. Keel boats and barges were made to ascend as well as

descend the river. The flat-boat was made only to float down

stream, and was broken up at the end of the voyage. The keel

boat was long and slender, sharp fore and aft, with a narrow

gangway within the gunwale, for the boatmen as they poled

or worked up stream, when not aided by eddies that made their

oars available. When the keel boat was covered by a low house,

lengthwise, between the gangways, it was called a barge. Flat

boats were called broad-horns. Keel boats, flat boats and barges

all had prodigious steering oars, and had great side oars fixed

on pivots. Mr. Roosevelt consulted with Chancellor Living-

ston, of New York, and Mr. Fulton, the celebrated inventor,

and in fact, all three had been studying the subject for years on

independent lines. In pursuance of the determination of these

three gentlemen, Mr. Roosevelt, then forty-two years of age, went

to Pittsburg in May, 1809, with his wife, nee Miss LaTrobe, of

Baltimore, to whom he had been recently married, and built a

flat boat, on which he and his wife proposed to float to New

Orleans. This boat had a bed room, dining room, pantry and

large room in front for the crew, with a fire place where the

* Brother to the grandfather of President Theodore Roosevelt.

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The First Steamboat on the Ohio.         311

 

cooking was done. The top of the boat was flat with an awning

and seats. Beside Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt, there was a maid

for her, a pilot, three hands and a cook. The flat boat floated

by day and laid to at night. The skiff of the flat was in con-

stant use in daylight, observing the currents, eddies, etc. The

only places of any importance between Pittsburg and New Or-

leans, were Cincinnati, Louisville and Natchez, and they were

then insignificant little towns.  Mr. Roosevelt had letters of

introduction to all the principal persons along the route, and to

all he explained his purpose in the trip, and his intention to

build a steamboat at Pittsburg and come down the river with it.

He was listened to respectfully, but no one believed in him.

Neither did he receive the slightest encouragement from anyone.

The pilots and the boatmen were the most skeptical of all. He

told them of the successful navigation with steam on the Hudson

three years before, but that had no effect. They replied that it

could not be done on the Ohio and Mississippi, but they could not

shake Mr. Roosevelt's confidence, nor he their unbelief. He

told them when he would be along with his steamboat, and en-

gaged his supplies then and there. He sounded the depths of

the rivers as he went along, measured the currents, and obtained

all the information as to them that he could. He also made

estimates as to the future development of the country. When

he found coal banks along the Ohio, he purchased and opened

them, and ordered coal mined and laid aside till his steamboat,

not yet built, should come along. He reached New Orleans on

December 1, 1809, and went around to New York in a sailing

vessel. The yellow fever developed aboard, and Mr. and Mrs.

Roosevelt got off the ship at Old Point Comfort, and went

thence to New York by stage, reaching there January 15, 1810.

He made his report to Messrs. Fulton and Livingston, and they

determined to aid him in the enterprise. This is the same Chan-

cellor Livingston who administered the oath of office to George

Washington, when first inaugurated as president of the United

States, on April 30, 1789, and who was the firm friend of Na-

poleon Bonaparte, while an envoy from his own country to

France. Chancellor Livingston furnished the greater part of

the funds for the enterprise. In the spring of 1810, Mr. Roose-

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velt repaired to Pittsburg, then an insignificant place to build

the first steamboat. The keel was laid where now stands the

depot of the Pittsburg and Connelsville railroad. The size and

plan of the steamboat had been determined on in New York.

It was to be 116 feet long and 20 feet wide. The engine was to

have a ₃₄-inch cylinder. The difficulty was to get suitable timber

for the boat. The men required to get it out knew nothing of

what was required of them. The sawing was done in the old-

fashioned saw-pits. The shipbuilders had to be brought from

New York. Great difficulties intervened at every point of the

work, but at last the boat was built and launched. She cost

$30,000 and was named the "New Orleans" for her destination.

As the boat was about being finished, it became known that Mrs.

Roosevelt intended to accompany her husband on the voyage.

All her friends in Pittsburg tried to dissuade her. They re-

garded it as madness, but she was firm in her determination to

go. There were two cabins in the boat, one aft for ladies, and

one forward for gentlemen.  In the ladies' cabin were four

berths. Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt were the only passengers, no

one else would take passage. There was a captain, an engineer

named Baker, Andrew Jack the pilot, six hands, two female

servants, a man waiter, a cook, and a big Newfoundland dog,

called Tiger. The people of Pittsburg turned out enmasse to

witness the commencement of the voyage. The shores every-

where after leaving Pittsburg were covered with the virgin

forest down to the water's edge. Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt sat

up most of the first night of the voyage watching the progress

of the boat. The second day after leaving Pittsburg, the New

Orleans rounded to in front of Cincinnati and dropped her an-

chor. The whole town was on the river front. Many of Mr.

Roosevelt's former acquaintances came out to him in small boats

to congratulate him on his success, but they all assured him he

could never go up stream with his boat. The New Orleans only

stopped at Cincinnati long enough to take in a supply of wood,

and left for Louisville. It was at midnight, with a flood of

moonlight, on October 1, 1811, when the New Orleans ap-

proached Louisville. The noise of the escaping steam and the

revolution of the wheels, heard for the first time, aroused the

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The First Steamboat on the Ohio.        313

 

entire population, and crowds rushed to the river front to

learn the cause of the awful noise, never heard before. Many

people thought the comet of 1811, had fallen in the Ohio, and

was making the noise, but when the New Orleans came in

sight, all doubts were dispelled. The next morning Mr. Roose-

velt's friends came aboard, and told him the same things as were

said to him at Cincinnati. They assured him his was the first

and last steamboat that would be seen above the falls of the

Ohio. A few days after, the citizens gave him a public dinner

ashore, at which he was congratulated on his success in bring-

ing a steamboat down the river, but he was assured that she

would never ascend. Mr. Roosevelt had no predictions to make

then, but invited the company to a return banquet on board the

New Orleans, on a day he named. The time of the banquet

aboard the New Orleans arrived and the company met in the

forward cabin, where they were seated at the tables. When the

festivities were at their height, the boat began to shake, there

were unheard of rumblings and groaning on the lower deck,

and the boat was evidently in motion. The whole company was

horror-stricken. They had but one idea, and that was that the

boat had broken her moorings, and was drifting to the falls to

to their destruction. All rushed out, when they found that the

boat was steaming up the Ohio, and leaving Louisville behind.

After going up a few miles the boat returned to her anchorage

at Louisville. The boat was intended to ply between Natchez

and New Orleans and was built for that purpose, but the water

was not of sufficient depth to go over the falls. While waiting

for this, the boat made a trip to Cincinnati and returned. This

satisfied the croakers in Cincinnati and in Louisville that the

boat could go up stream. While waiting at Louisville to cross

the falls, Mrs. Roosevelt became a mother. It was the last week

in November before the New Orleans could essay the falls. The

boat took the Indiana side. She put on all steam she was capable

of. Two falls pilots took their stand at the bow of the boat.

Mrs. Roosevelt stood at the stern with the great Newfoundland

dog at her side. Everybody was anxious, but the passage was

safely made, and the boat continued her journey down the river.

But there was a great contrast between the voyage from Pitts-

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burg to Louisville, which was all pleasure, and that from Louis-

ville to New Orleans, which was all tedious and lonesome, and

full of anxieties and perils. There was day after day a leaden

sky, a dim sunlight during the day and starless nights. The

comet of 1811 had disappeared but the earthquakes of that year

had just begun. The first shock was noticed just after the boat

had passed the falls. The effect on the nerves was as though

she had been in motion and had suddenly grounded. The boat

shook and trembled, and those aboard were attacked with nau-

sea, like sea-sickness. It was some time before the real facts

were appreciated. There were successive shocks during the

night. As they approached the mouth of the Ohio they met a

rise which had backed up from the Missisippi. They passed

through bands of Indians who were about in canoes. One night

the boat got on fire in the forward cabin, from wood piled near

the stove, but happily it was extinguished without great damage.

Above the mouth of the Ohio the boat was supplied with coal

that had been mined and brought to the bank expressly. After

reaching the Mississippi, the boat tied up each afternoon while

the crew went ashore and cut and brought in wood for the next

day's consumption. At New Madrid, some of the people whose

homes had been swallowed up in the earthquakes, begged to be

taken aboard, while others, frightened by the steamboat, took to

the woods and hid. The voyage on the Mississippi, when they

were out in the river was oppressive by its silence. The shores

on either side were a wilderness. The occurrence of the earth-

quakes over-awed all; even the dog Tiger was conscious of

these shocks, and would howl and mourn, and come to Mrs.

Roosevelt for sympathy. The flatboatmen that they met and

passed were similarly affected, they had no jovial greetings. The

earthquakes had caved in so much of the banks, and made such

changes in the river, that their pilot was lost. Tall trees which

he knew, had been swept into the river. Well known islands

had disappeared, and new ones made themselves known. Cut-offs

had been made where before there was forest. There was no place

to stop, and no way to learn the changes and the pilot had to keep

on. When first the boat came into the Mississippi she would

tie up at night to the shore, but the shore caved so often from

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The First Steamboat on the Ohio.         315   the earthquakes that the plan was abandoned, and the boat was anchored at the foot of an island, where one could be found. One evening, the boat was tied at the foot of an island. There was an earthquake that night, and in the morning it was discovered that the island had disappeared. Often they would see great trees along the shore sink and fall into the turbid waters, so much so that they were compelled to keep away from shores, for fear that the trees would fall upon them, but this ceased when they passed out of the earthquake region. The terror of the river, of the comet and of the earthquake did not prevent the Captain of the boat from making love to Mrs. Roosevelt's maid, and they were betrothed at Natchez and married when they arrived at New Orleans. Robert Fulton one of the projectors of the enterprise died in 1815 at the age of fifty. Chancellor Livingston died in 1813, at the advanced age of -, while Nicholas J. Roosevelt survived to 1854, and his wife to 1871. Roosevelt never doubted the success of steamboat navigation in the Western waters and lived to see his greatest expectations fulfilled. Portsmouth, Ohio.

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