Appalachian History

A great many people in Ekeyville owned their own small boat, a skiff or johnboat. The johnboat is a flat bottomed affair with one set of oar locks and square in the stern. The skiff comes to a sharp bow and a gradual tapering to the stern and generally has two sets of oar locks.

There were many versions of these boats tied along the river bank, all being homemade.

"Drifting" on the Ohio River was a great pastime for those who owned a skiff or johnboat. There was always something floating down stream. In the early days many things of value could be caught, logs, railroad ties worth a dollar, new sawed lumber, boat and barge planks, frames of small buildings. If there came a sudden raise in the river - the better the drifting - for people up stream lost things that were not securely tied up or nailed down.

Usually two men would go together, one to row the boat the other to stand up in the boat with the spar pole to spear the objects floating, fasten a rope securely and then tow to shore.

Example of a johnboat. Caption reads: "Clarence Sidney Willis rows a johnboat on the Licking River [KY], with Mae Martin and another woman, Sept. 14, 1919"

Ed and Dave McCoy were a team to drift. During the Depression when there was no work and plenty of time many men worked at the drifting. Some of them were Lou Thomas, Charlie Dunlap, Andy Prosko, Wilber Ekey, Frank and Shorty Byers.

John Ekey was a qualified drifter. He could tell at a distance of 10 to 15 ft. if the object was worth towing to shore. In his younger days he often took a younger man or teenager with him to manage the boat. Captain Ekey held a pilot's license for more than twenty years for the river district between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Gilbert VanDyne always had great pleasure and fun going drifting many trips with Cap Ekey.

There were four times in Cap Ekey's life when the object caught was a body - and this was unpleasant.


source: "The Stratton Village [OH} Story/A Community History 1880-1976," by Mary Ekey Robinson, published by the Stratton Village Bicentennial Committee, p. 53, at www.digitalshoebox.org



drifting johnboat Ohio+River appalachia appalachian+history history+of+appalachia

Two other families came into the [Round Bottom, OH] neighborhood. One's name was Ransom, the other Wilson. These men got into trouble with each other, some of the neighbors took part with one and some with the other. I have heard my mother, and her brother and sisters, talking about this trouble.

They said there was a man that came there be name of Simons. I think from the way they talked about him that he was a bachelor. He was a wag, always having some witty expression to suit every case.

While this trouble was going on this man Simons dreamed a very singular dream. He dreamed he died and went to hell. Soon after he got there he met the Devil, who began to ask him questions. After some questions he asked him where he was from. He told the Devil he was from Round Bottom, Round Bottom -- as if he was in study.

"Why, there is where Ransom lives -- what's he doing?"

He told him that Ransom was dead. The Devil called to his boy and told him to saddle his horse and bring it to him immediately, that he must go to Round Bottom, for Ransom was dead and the people have peace there now.

After this he thought of Wilson. On being told that Wilson was still there he called the boy back saying, "Never mind, Wilson is there and will do just as well as if I were there myself."

Athens [OH] Messenger
Sept. 7, 1899

FAMILY RECOLLECTIONS OF MRS. JUDGE DOWNING BAUGH
(nee Mrs. Sophronia Davis)


Source: http://galliagenealogy.org/History/fam_recollections.htm




appalachian+humor Gallipolis+OH Ohio+River appalachia appalachian+history history+of+appalachia

On October 1, 1755, while returning home from Fort Cumberland [MD] Trading Post several miles away, white settler Jane Frazier was captured by Miami Indian warriors and taken to the Miami River in Ohio. "By a person who arrived in town last Monday from Col. Cresap's (Oldtown about ten miles from Ivitts Creek)," reported The Maryland Gazette on October 9, "we are told that last Wednesday the Indians had taken a man prisoner who was going to Fort Cumberland from Frazier's and had also carried off a woman from Frazier's Plantation which is four miles this side of Fort Cumberland."

Fort Cumberland in 1755, from "History of Cumberland, Maryland", 1878, by William Lowdermilk.

Jane Frazier miraculously escaped after thirteen months and made her way back to safety. She wrote a detailed narrative of her experience, which has been preserved by successive generations of her family: "Thus to be torn away from home and friends and all that was dear to me, and consigned to live like a brute among savages, and then to lose my only comfort, my first born, and have it buried in this wilderness, was more than my frail nature could bear, and I was nearly crazy for a time. Still the Indians were kind to me, and when they saw my child was dead, they cut a hickory tree, peeled off the bark and made a coffin, and wrapping it in some of the clothes they had stolen, they placed it in the coffin they had made and buried it near our town in their own burying ground.

"I remained with these Indians 13 months, in the summer time helping the squaws in their corn and vegetable patches and in the winter time assisting them in their cooking operations. While I was with this tribe they determined on another raid into Pennsylvania, consequently they performed their powwows and war dances, in order to give them good luck in their expedition, then left for their long trip. They took all their best warriors, leaving a few old men and some boys to hunt game and food for the squaws and papooses.

"The chief and warriors were gone about seven weeks. They returned bringing with them two Dutchmen from Pennsylvania, whom they adopted into the tribe. One of them was a tanner by trade, and they employed them to tan their skins for them. He worked a little ways from the town where there was a large spring and the other man was allowed to help him. These men were very restless in their confinement.

"A little later the Indians determined on another raid, and in a few days departed. The Dutchmen now determined to leave, and let me into their secret, so we procured an old rifle which they repaired, and we hid all the provisions we could find, and a week after the warriors were gone the game became very scarce, so the hunters had to be out nearly all the time for provisions for the squaws and children. We now concluded this would be the best time to gain our liberty, so obtaining a small amount of ammunition we gathered up our old gun and some provisions and left our new connections without stopping to say goodbye, and taking advantage of the warriors and hunters we left for home."

Full version of her narrative here



Ft+Cumberland+MD Jane+Frazier Miami+Indians Ohio+River appalachia appalachia+history history+of+appalachia

This is an excerpt from a 1949 letter written by Capt. Tom Greene, owner of Greene Line Steamers, to his friend Dan Heekin, a Cincinnati industrialist and river buff. The letter was discovered tucked in a copy of Steamboats & Steamboatmen by Ellis C. Mace.


“I have about decided to put the CHRIS GREENE'S whistle on the DELTA for the following reasons. First of all I like it as it is of low mellow 'big boat' quality. I don't believe it will annoy the passengers sleep and it comes from the HOMER SMITH which boat was partially owned by one Capt. C.C. Bowyer a great friend of my Dad's and a banker in Point Pleasant, W.Va.

“Capt. Bowyer was a 'friend in need' when the going was rough for my Dad and he went all out financially to help Dad after he had bought the WHITE COLLAR LINE from Commodore Laidley in 1903. Besides a good whistle I feel that it would be sort of a tribute to Capt. Bowyer from a sentimental standpoint to use this HOMER-SMITH-CHRIS GREENE whistle.

“The TOM GREENE'S whistle is the most historic on the river. It was my Dad's favorite and some of the oldtimers have said that my Dad bought the WHITE COLLAR LINE to get that whistle. It was then on the Str. COURIER. It had been on the sidewheel EXPRESS which I believe ran before the Civil War. It was later on the Str. ST. LAWRENCE and has always been known as the ST. LAWRENCE whistle.

“My Dad certainly loved this whistle and it was on nearly all the G.L. boats at one time or another. My Dad sorta wore this whistle as he did his hat and had it aboard the boat he generally thought he would be on for a long period.

“Just a little more history on the TOM GREENE-ST. LAWRENCE whistle while I'm about it. During the 1917-'18 ice siege, the GREENLAND had the ST. LAWRENCE whistle and at that time the GREENLAND was on the docks at the old Cincinnati Marine Ways here in East End.

“Of course you probably recall the ice knocked the GREENLAND off the cradles at that point and down the river she came in the gorge sideways. As I had been born on the GREENLAND my Dad called my Mother at home in Hyde Park and said, "…get Tom out of school and bring him down here to the wharfboat to see his birthplace go by," which my Mother did. I was then eleven years old and in the formative age when things impress you.

“When I got down to the boat the gorge was moving fast, the other GREENE LINE boats had steam up and were 'comin ahead strong.' There was a 'wailing and gnashing' of timberheads, cavels and lines snapping. Pretty soon someone hollered, "here she comes," meaning the GREENLAND. As the GREENLAND hove in sight on her side everybody stood in silence. There was an old purser on the wharfboat who had been on the GREENLAND a long time and he too was in love with the ST. LAWRENCE whistle and he said he would give a hundred dollars to anyone who could get that whistle off the boat when the gorge stopped moving.

“The next couple of days the GREENLAND was down about Rising Sun, Ind., and in the meantime some thieves went out on the ice and took off the whistle, got some chairs and the boats silverware. They were apprehended and the whistle returned. My Dad dropped the charges against the thieves feeling that getting the whistle back and the risk they had taken in going over on the boat in the gorge should cancel the charges against them.”

Caption reads: Steamer Greenland 10 minutes after breaking away from Dock. Flood and Ice Gorge, 1918, Cincinnati, O.

The Greenland was Gordon Greene's finest boat of his Greene Line fleet. He watched helplessly as the ice swept away three of his wharf boats. The Greenland was a total loss. An ice gorge was an ever possible winter danger up & down the Ohio River. It occurs as a result of river ice piling up against an obstruction, such as a wharf, forming a temporary dam. When that ice pack-up finally breaks, the channel formed down the river’s middle is the ice gorge. The river, which flows at the same speed as before, is now forced through a narrower channel, which means the churning waters rolling down an ice gorge are great destroyers of boats and anything else swept into it.

The White Collar Line was one of the early steamboat lines to ply the Ohio River and westward. Its Mississippi River network extended from St. Louis north to St. Paul. Its name comes from the broad painted collars encircling the tops of the ship smoke stacks, which identified the boats at a distance from rival lines.

The White Collar Line competed fiercely with an operator known as the Northern or Red Collar line for passenger and freight traffic. Each strove to profitably carry freight at lower rates than the other, and neither company was above giving passengers free berths and meals, or a money consideration on the side to win their business away from the other steamboat line.


Sources: www.vangrafx.com/PTHS/river/lafayettepg2.html
www.steamboats.org/history-education/tom-greene-letter.html
www.cincinnativiews.net/flood_&_ice_gorge.htm



ice+gorge White+Collar+Line steamboats Ohio+River appalachia appalachian+history appalachia+history

John Holt (1870-1918), a coal miner in Murray City, OH, kept a journal of his daily life.

John Holt and the coal miners he worked with outside of the mine in Murray City.

April 1907- "The miners here geting 57 cts per ton for screened coal and two dollars and fifty six cents per day for day work inside of mine 236 for outside work 8 hours to be one days work. I went to work day work in mine no 2 but onely work a short time when I got contract of picking up coal at mines no 1, 2, and 3 had to furnish my own horse bought one from the coal company Paid $60 dollars for him and he was well worth it as he is a vary good horse but old.

“Also bought a cow a young one first calf for $30 dollars. She is vary good. Later in September I think, I bought a two seated surray for one horse or I paid $50 dollars for it later I bought a one horse wagon and buggy or runabout of John ???? for $25 dollars 2 get 90 cts per ton that being Pick price for picking up coal and cleaning tracks. I made $70 dollars the last half of July.

“That being my first start and the month of August we made $203 dollar s with my son Clifford working with me till school started in September. Then he went to school. There is 8 months school. Since then I have not made less than 120 dollars per month till month of March we had hardly any work and of course that throwed me out too. I onely Made about $45 for the whole month and I don' t think I will get vary mutch this month either as work is poor we all have had fair health the past year. "

The Flood

April 14, 1907- "the flood commenced about 7 o'clock on the 13th of March and thundered and lightnening'd like summer time and the rain fell fast until the streams and rivers were running wild. Several houses and part of the trestle washed away at the mine. Some mines were filled up with water and towns along the Hocking River were flooded bad. Buildings washed away and people drowned.

Athens, OH home destroyed by flood.

"Towns that suffered the most were Nelsonville, Athens and Logan. It took peoples furniture and caused lots of suffering and would have been worse except for the warm weather. The railroad was damaged something like $100,000 dollars. Mail was unable to be delivered for a week."

source: www.ohgen.net/ohathens/johnholtjournal.htm [diary & Holt photo]


Murray+City+OH coal+mining Ohio+River appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

The Sistersville Ferry is the longest continuously working mode of transportation in Monroe County, OH, operating since 1815. It crosses the Ohio River between Fly, Ohio, and Sistersville, West Virginia, which is the apex of the longest straight stretch on the Ohio River. This section of the river is called the "Long Reach," which runs about twenty miles in length.

At the "Long Reach," one can see Beavertown seven and a half miles to the south, and in the other direction Sardis can be spotted five miles north. The Sistersville Ferry is located near the site George Washington encamped during a survey trip to the west on October 25, 1770.

There are only four ferries left along the 981-mile long mighty Ohio River, with the Sisterville Ferry being the only one along the 277 mile stretch of Ohio River that shares its border with West Virginia.

source: http://www.pbase.com/gshamilton/image/50806746

Fly+OH Sisterville+Ferry Sisterville+WV Ohio+River appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

Los Angeles, February 6, 1934
Editor Tribune: Sixty years have passed since the writer answered an advertisement in the columns of The Tribune's honored predecessor, The Ironton Register, resulting in his employment as a boy in the Register office. That was on February 6, 1874. I remained in the service of the Register twenty-seven years, until moving to Chicago.

What changes have come about in sixty years?

Then, the "Old Brick" school in Ironton was standing, on the Kingsbury site. The high school had one teacher, and afterward two. Part of the time, its principal was also the school superintendent. Superintendents changed frequently. Saul Wood and Jos. Le Sage were successively long time janitors. They suffered more devilment from the kids than did the school heads.

"East Ironton" then had a few scattered houses not many blocks ("squares" we called them) beyond Adams Street. The direction is now known as south because of the confusing diagonal position of Ironton on the map. The Deaconess Hospital was then the W. D. Kelly home, and the grounds included a deer park with a fine herd.

"Kelly's Graveyard" was the principal cemetery. Processions marched all the way to that hallowed spot on "Decoration" days, headed by the Silver Cornet Band. I remember when beautiful Woodland, where so many now sleep, was laid out. When "Big Etna" furnace was built, it cost more than a million dollars and sold at auction for ten thousand.

Every church now standing in Ironton was built in my time, as well as some that have been razed. So every school building up to the Ironton High School. So probably three-fourths of the business places of every kind. The occasional launchings of steamboats and other large river craft built by Mike Wise above Vernon Street, were gala occasions and beautiful sights.

I remember when Emerson McMillin, then a young school teacher and later one of the eminent and wealthy men of the nation, labored in laying the first gas mains in Ironton and assisted in the installation of the gas works, becoming the company's secretary. That was in 1867. My father was the town's first gas fitter.

When palatial river packets like the Fleetwood and Bostona arrived at the Ironton wharf from Cincinnati each morning on schedule time. When a railroad on one side of the river or the other was a far-off dream. When the Scioto Valley railroad came to town following the high pressure exerted by its promoters to secure the franchise through the streets. When the Iron Railroad sold for $500,000.

When the Ironton Plow factory followed by Henry's mill, was where the Crystal Ice factory is now. When Park Avenue was Olive street and when "Cory's tunnel" was blasted through the hill.

I recall the great occasions of county fairs in the fair grounds out by the "iron bridge." The bridge which I understand is now an antique in the hands of Henry Ford. I vaguely remember when my grandfather, James Amlin, was postmaster at Ironton in wartime. When a big fire below the railroad on Second destroyed the Register office and Wright's drug store.

I retain distinct impressions of some local incidents of the Civil War, although too young to realize all it meant. I remember the deep sorrow when President Lincoln was assassinated.

In my boyhood, the block bounded by Fifth, Sixth, Washington and Adams was the "Dempsey field," and circus tents were pitched there. In winter, a pond in the field and extending across Washington Street furnished good skating. Storms creek when firmly frozen and Ebert's pond were larger centers for the sport.


F. B. Lawton.

Ironton Sunday Tribune, February 18, 1934, Sunday, Page 8.

source: www.lawrencecountyohio.com/ironton/stories/lawton.htm


appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history Emerson+McMillin Ironton+OH Lawrence+County+OH Ohio+River river+packets Scioto+Valley

“Well I'll tell you I came from up in Washington County. Washington County, Ohio. Lived up in the country there with my grandmother. My mother died when I was a little fellow and I lived with my grandmother. Lived up there in the country and all you could see was the steamboats. There was nothing else up there to look at except the trees and the farms, and one thing and another. So I lived there until I got to be sixteen years old. Watched the boats and went down when the boats landed. I got acquainted with some of the fellows on the boat and after awhile I got a job on the boat ...

"... The man never made any money out of [the water circus]. Well, I’ll tell you, he went down the river, we followed the river down here, made all the river towns aware, that there were any justified to stop at. Got out of Paducah and after he got to Paducah he decided he didn’t want to go down the river any farther, he wanted to come back. He lived at Ironton and he didn't want to get too far away from home.

“His name was Newman. So he came back up the same way he came down, what they called backtracking, and he didn't do much business. He lost his shirt. He had a few [animals], but not very many. He managed to sort of get along without them because they was too hard to handle and too hard to acquire. They'd be liable to get loose and eat up some of the audience.


“He had a lot of performers. He had trapeze performers and he had the fellows that’d do these cartwheels and all that kind of stuff. They'd get up and swing around on the trapeze and turn flip flops in the air. Oh they had a lot of things there. Had a couple of fellows under a great big old blanket and get them up in a certain way and made kind of an animal at of it they called a jocko. It was a kind of ridiculous looking thing but it sure did bring the house down. They made a hit every time they put it on. Didn't mean anything.

“You've seen two men under a blanket I expect. That's about all it was, but it made a hit. Another thing he had was an imitation of an automobile. At that time there was no such thing as an automobile, hardly. People had heard of them, but nobody had ever seen them hardly. He had a thing there on the boat that had four wheels on it and it was supposed to represent an automobile and boy there was a crowd around that thing all the time looking at it. It wouldn't run. They had to pull it around when they wanted to move it and there wasn't an engine or anything of that kind but it made a hit. Just goes to show how things were changed since that time.”

Captain Jesse Hughes
of the riverboat “The Cricket”
which he piloted 1900-1903 along the Ohio & Big Sandy Rivers
1957 interview

Source: http://www.uis.edu/archives/memoirs/HUGHESJ.pdf

Related post: "Last of the Packet Boats"


Jesse+Hughes water+circus the+Cricket Washington+County+OH Ohio+River Big+Sandy+River appalachia appalachian+culture appalachian+history history+of+appalachia