Shep's Place Family Tree

The full names of the parties are as follows:
His full name is Ellsworth E. Eisenbarth
Her full name is Jennie S. Brown
His age is 43 years. Her age is 39 years.
He was born in Lawrence County, State of Ohio.
She was born in Meigs County, State of Ohio.
His place of residence is Washington County Ohio.
Her place of residence is Mason County, State of West Virginia.
The name of the party giving the foregoing information is Ellsworth E. Eisenbarth of Washington County, State of Ohio.
Given Under My Hand, this 9th day of December 1907
W.R.B. Smith, Clerk.
MINISTER'S RETURN OR ENDORSEMENT.
I, Wm. E. Craig, a Minister of the Gospel of the M.E. Church do certify, that on the 10 day of Dec. 1907, at Hartford in Mason County, State of West Virginia, I united in Marriage the above named and described parties, under authority of the foregoing License.

1887-90: Eisenbarth Wild West Show & Opera, New Martinsville, WV
The Eisenbarth-Henderson Co. Floating Theatre Mr & Mrs Eisenbarth

1899-1902 Mr & Mrs Ellsworth Eisenbarth had a Temple of Amusement 150 X 30, which seated 600. The launch site was New Martinsburg WV.

1903-1909 Modern Temple of Amusement 160 X 41 seating 1,400
Parkersburg, WV

The Castle, built after 1909 on the Muskingham River, was made of two barges. Ellsworth lectured and sermonized on the boat. He studied and was well versed in sermons. "The Castle, the Greatest Motion Picture Show in the World!"

In 1880 the Eisenbarths had moved from Monroe County, Ohio, to New Martinsville in Wetzel Co., West Virginia, which is just across the Ohio River from Clarington, Ohio - still roughly halfway between Wheeling and Marietta on the Ohio River. Ellsworth was a school boy aged 14 years. The family had a female servant named R. Brownfield, aged 19.

In 1910 Ellsworth, 44, was managing a theater which showed moving pictures. Ellsworth's second wife, Jennie ‎(Brown)‎ 40 years was keeping house on Front Street, Marietta. Dennalla 16, Ignace 11, and Eugene five were living at home. They had a servant named Margaret Hagan, 54.

For place of birth we find that Ellsworth was born in Ohio & his parents born in West Virginia ‎[actually Germany]‎; Jennie and her parents were all born in Ohio; Dennella in West Virginia; Ignace in Michigan; and Eugene in Kentucky. Margaret Hagan and her parents had been born in Pennsylvania.

Margaret Hagan, who had lived and worked for the Eisenbarth family for years, born August 1856 in Pennsylvania, married in 1900 and living with her husband in Sistersville, Tyler Co., West Virginia. She had three children of whom only one was alive. I suspect that her husband died soon after 1900, and Margaret was offered the job of caring for the Eisenbarth children after their mother's death. She may also have had an association with the Eisenbarths before her husband died. She was the equivalent of the children's nanny.

1920: Still in Marietta, Ellsworth by now was 54 and Jennie 51. They owned their house on Front Street. There were two children at home: Ignace, 20 and Eugene.

‎[photograph taken from high position of large boat, EISENBARTH, with people standing on the upper deck]‎

An exceptionally rare view of Eisenbarth's combined wild west and opera floating theater, probably his first. It dates in the 1890's. On Feb. 10, 1900 Capt. Eisenbarth bought a freight barge built at Marietta in 1896, 151.5ft by 25.3ft named the E.B. Potts No. 2 and built on it his first Eisenbarth Showboat. It was rammed and crushed at Grand Tower, Ill. in the fall of 1902 by the towboat Sprague down bound on her maiden voyage from Dubuque. Then he built a replacement at Parkersburg in 1903 and operated it until he sold it to Walter P. Needham and retired on March 1, 1901.

"Sirs: Recently I had the pleasure of visiting with Eugene and Mrs. Eisenbarth at their cozy home in Jensen Beach, Florida. Gene is the son of the illustrious Capt. Ellsworth E. Eisenbarth who pioneered high class drama on his showboats at the turn of the century. Also Gene and his wife, billed as "Gene and Jo, Illusionists Extraordinary" have been top-flight entertainers for almost 50 years.

I don't know whether there is such a thing as a 'Riverboat Hall of Fame' but the late Capt. Ellsworth E. Eisenbarth is my candidate. In the course of a few years this prim, slightly-built, rugged disciplinarian parlayed a one-wagon medicine show into one of the largest floating theaters on the Mississippi System. and, contrary to the advice of the experts of the day, Capt. E. E. Eisenbarth presented the works of Shakespeare and Goethe on his stage so successfully that he retired from the rivers in comfort at the age of 45.
Gene gold me several anecdotes about his father:

Capt. E.E. had a pet pony. He rode it up the hill at various showboat landings to buy groceries and supplies. However instead of tying the pony to a hitching post, the publicity-conscious captain was known to ride his steed into the emporiums. There he would wave before the consternation-stricken storekeeper a lengthy list of his requirements, toted up into a sizeable order. Storekeepers in the smaller towns learned to look forward to the clop-clop-clop of the captain's indoor visits on pony-back. This probably was during his early days when he was running Eisenbarth's New Wild West & Floating Opera.

The average take at an Eisenbarth performance was $400, sometimes better. There were lean times, too, particularly during spells of rainy weather or flood. On one occasion the good captain sold the showboat piano to buy needed groceries.

After his retirement in Marietta, OH. Capt. Eisenbarth continued to visit showboats that played there. Gene remembers several occasions when his father paid the coal bill to enable some less fortunate operator to reach the next town.

At the apex of his success, Capt. Eisenbarth correctly foresaw the devastating effect that the infant moving picture industry would have on all then-known forms of show business. He sold out in 1901, and ran the Grand Theater in Marietta.

Gene also remembers the 1910 Stanley Steamer in which Capt. Eisenbarth installed a miniature calliope. As a youngster, Gene remembers that calliope reposing in the family basement, and Gene also recalls an attic loaded with parade banners, posters, letterheads, etc.

Yes, I remember Capt. Eisenbarth. My last recollection is when I marched up to his house in Marietta with the Marietta Boys' Band to serenade him on his birthday. We boys did not even know why they called him captain; and we had no hint that we were witnessing the end of so great an era. Captain Eisenbarth was a highly respected citizen in our community until his death in 1925."

Ellsworth Eugene Eisenbarth was born October 22, 1864 in Ironton, Ohio the son of Christopher Columbus Eisenbarth. Sometime afterwards the family moved to Wetzel County WV the exact date is not known but Ellsworth left to attend the theological seminar at Waynesburg College in Waynesburg, PA. His father was a grocer, banker, and dealt in real estate.

By 1884 Ellsworth returned disillusioned with religion and possible with malaria. He open a stationery and print shop in New Martinsburg, WV. It is said he had developed an interest in theater while at Waynesburg. It would appear that this interest would fashion the rest of his life. The there no information as to why the family was in Ironton but the family returned home. New Martinsburg is across the Ohio River from Hanibal; the area where his father was raised. The following year Ellsworth was publishing the "Weekly Paragraph" in New Matamoras, Ohio. It appears Ellsworth did get around up and down the river as on February 28, 1886 he married Julia Ann Henderson at Sistersville, WV. She was the daughter of Judge Robert and Mary Jane Cutter Henderson.

By 1888 he was known as Dr. E.E. Eisenbarth, the proprietor of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company. This company was billed as "A Traveling Medical Institute" and sold Ka-ton-ka, modoc oil, worm eradicator ‎(which doubled as War Paint Ointment)‎ and cough syrup. The next year he was working for Oregon Indian Medicine Show. He had entertainment, real Indians, cowboys, roping etc. He played the Mid-Atlantic States. Next he bought a floating store and re-outfitted it to be the Eisenbarth Wild West and Floating Opera. I remember my Grandfather saying EE was in show business somewhere in New York before going into the showboat business. He had a poster advertising the boat however but didn't have much to say about him. The poster is very similar to the one in the Howard Museum in Jeffersonville, IN. He grew a moustache and goatee to cover his new dentures.

It appeared that E. E. did quite a bit of traveling some by boat and some by train while he was in Show-Business. He and his wife Julia were listed as performers who traveled by train but the Floating Opera list dates in played in 1891-95. They also conducted a rail-car show but the dates conflict with the Floating Opera. The Eisenbarth's Chow-Chow show traveled by rail from Michigan to Louisiana. It was a large show with a calliope, parade, comedies, acrobats, jugglers, dancers, etc. It was a traveling variety show. They began the Eisenbarth and Henderson Mammoth and Combined Uncle Tom's Cabin Company and were known to be in Ignace Michigan when their daughter Ignace was born in July 1899. It traveled in special rail cars with calliope, band and orchestra.

By February 1900 they converted the glass barge named the E.B. Poke No. 2 to the Eisenbarth-Henderson Floating Theatre, Temple of Amusement and began returning Shakespearean drama to the River. He got his first pilot's license in March 1900. It would appear he was involved with the Riverboat as well as a traveling company of players. One explanation would be to play the River in the warmer weather and go on land when the river was in danger of freezing.

On September 5, 1902 the showboat was struck by the Sprague and sunk. Sprague's owners built a new boat named The Eisenbarth-Henderson Floating Theatre, The Modern Temple of Amusement. His wife Julia died and he married Jennie Salina Brown in 1908. In 1909 Ellsworth played "The Castle" his last show on the River. He later bid on several boats without success tried his luck with The Egg Tone Company and The Ideal Trouser Press Company. He soon returned to the theater buying one in Marietta which he renamed the Hippodrome.

On July 17, 1825 he died at Marietta, OH and was buried in New Martinsville WV beside his first wife Julia.

His life was colorful, a medicine show operator, a performer, a promoter, a steamship captain, a journalist and through it all he was a showman. The show not only had to go on but it had to be grander and larger than anything before. In his later years he outfitted a Calliope to a Steamer auto and drove around Marietta. It was said he looked the part of a "Gentleman"

From: ­http­://­familytreemaker­.­genealogy­.­com­/­users­/­e­/­i­/­s­/­Donald­-­E­-­Eisenbarth­/­file­/­0003text­.­txt­

The second card was addressed to little Gene from Jennie. Postmarked December 13, 1907, it read "Would love to see my little sweetheart. Mamma." The picture was a street scene in Norfolk, Virginia.

Miss Jennie S. Brown and Mr. Ellsworth E. Eisenbarth were married Tuesday Dec. 10th at 10.30 a.m. at the home of the bride by Rev. William Craig, of the Methodist Episcopal church of Central City.
Miss Brown is the daughter of Capt. Matt Brown of Hartford, and is a popular young lady. She has been for some time one of Mason county's prominent teachers.
The groom is from New Martinsville and is a refined and well-to-do gentleman. He owns and manages the Eisenbarth show boat and is well known along our river.
The bride wore a brown traveling suuit which was quite becoming. The groom looked his best in the conventional black.
Only the relatives and a few intimate friends were present. A fine lunch was served and Mr. and Mrs. Eisenbarth left on the 5:15 train for Huntington. They will go to Washington, New York and other points of the east. Mr. and Mrs. Eisenbarth received the congratulations and best wishes of a host of friends. They will be at home after January 1st at 509 Front street, Marietta, Ohio.--Hartford Correspondent.