OHIO
Archaeological and Historical
QUARTERLY.
THE OHIO VALLEY
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
Fifth Annual
Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pa.,
October 30-November
1, 1911.
THE "NEW ORLEANS" CENTENNIAL.
Robert Fulton, who had profited by the
experiments and ex-
periences of John Fitch and James Rumsey
a score or more years
before, made a successful trial with the
steamboat Clermont on
the Hudson River in 1807. The success of
the Clermont on the
New York river inspired her owners,
Fulton, Livingston, and
Roosevelt, with the belief that the
western rivers, the Ohio and
Mississippi, would furnish another field
for a similar profitable
venture. So they sent the junior partner
of the firm, Nicholas
J. Roosevelt, to Pittsburgh to
investigate the matter. He had
just been married and took his bride
with him. The young
couple had a novel honeymoon, journeying
on a house boat to
New Orleans. During this voyage Mr.
Roosevelt made many
observations of the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers, their currents
and difficulties in the way of
navigation. He found no encour-
agement from any person during his
entire voyage. Everyone
predicted that while a steamboat might
navigate the placid waters
of the Hudson and might perhaps go down
the Ohio and Missis-
sippi Rivers at a great risk, yet she
would never be able to run
back against their swift currents.
However, so confident was he
of success that on his way to New
Orleans he secured several
coal mines along the Ohio from which he
expected to supply
the steamboat he intended to bring along
later. Reaching New
Vol. XXII-1.
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