Newspaper Article |
Note: The Gallipolis Tribune - Brown Family BoatsGallipolis' Brown Family Owned, Operated Many Steamboats in Huntington Trade
Reprinted here is the text of K. Wanen's column of May 13, 1950, in the Huntington Herald-Advertiser:
A lot of hard-working little steamers, running in short trades and carrying commonplace day-to-day commerce, had an important place in the economic life of the river valleys up to 1915, and today many of these little boats are as well remembered as some of their larger and more glamorous cousins.
In fact the total volume of freight and passengers carried by these short-trade packets may have been almost as much as that which rode the beautiful big boats from Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis and New Orlgans. For though the smaller boats went about their business with much less fanfare, they came and went. Day after day, maintaining regular schedules.
Dray Horses of River. They were the dray horses of the rivers, doing the work performed by trucks and buses and were relied upon by farmers, and residents of the smaller towns. But they were good looking dray horses, for some of the local packets were smart, well-kept little craft, with nice lines, fancy topped smokestacks and pelnty of gingerbread around their upper works.
Every section of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries had these busy little packets, and there were a great many of them in various trades between Portsmouth and Gallipolis. They were, almost without exception, owned by local people and manned by crews who were well acquainted with the passengers with whom they dealt every day.
Carrie Brown Attained Fame The Brown family, Gallipolis, owned and operated many of the dependable steamers which made daily trips to Huntington, and few boats every attained a better reputation among more people than their Carrie Brown,which ran faithfully from 1890 to 1913.
She was a fast, 122-foot sternwheeler which made all the farmlandings and small towns between Huntington and Gallipolis, loading farm produce and passengers along the way, and discharging hardware, groceries, and other necessities shipped from her two terminal points. She burned at Gallipolis late in 1913, and her efficient engines subsequently did good work on the ferry steamers Oweva, and later the Paul F. Thomas plying back and forth from the foot of Twenty-sixth St., Huntington, to Bradrick, Ohio.
Engines on Main Deck Like many of her kind, the Carrie Brown had her engines, boilers, passenger cabin, and freight-carrying space all on the main deck, and the only superstructure above the roof was the pilothouse, the twin smokestacks, the traditional roof bell, rigging, and a few items of essential equipment. Otherwise she was built along the usual riverboat lines, to a smaller scale. One member of the Brown family long associated with the ownership and operation of the Carrie Capt. Dick Brown, now of Huntington, made thousands of trips back and forth in the Huntington-Gallipolis trade.
Leaving Huntington at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, the Carrie would reach Gallipolis about 7:30 o'clock in the evening, after having made five to 20 landings on the way. About midway she would pass another of the Brown family boats, usually the Chevalier, which had left Gallipolis at the same time the Carrie was leaving Huntington. "All together I expect there were 50 steamboat landings between Huntington and Gallipolisk" says Capt. Brown, "but of course we did not make all of them every trip."
Salary: $14 a Week "We carried a single crew," he recalls, "and we would usually keep going from 12 to 15 hours a day, for our work began long before the boat was ready ot leave Huntington, andwe weren't through until all had beenunloaded at Gallipolis, and everything put in readiness for the next day's trip. The pilot, engineer, and clerk each earned $14 a week and everybody was happy."
Dick Brown's father, Marlong and his uncles, Matthew, Melvin, Miles, Manley, and Martin were all steamboatmen. dick naturally had numerous cousins who were connected with the river business, and the Carrie Brown was named for one cousin who has, in more recent years, been a resident of New Orleans.
The Huntington-Gallipolis boats with which Dick was connected as part owner, clerk, and pilot, were the Enos Taylor, Chevalier, and Carrie Brown, but the first one he was on was the Luella Brown, running between Paducah, Ky., and Cairo, Ill., and th4e last was the Dick Brown, running from Gallipolis to Charleston and later from Cincinnati to Madis9on, Ind.
Real Name: Albert H. Brown There is one little-known circumstance about Capt. Brown and his long river career whiuch might be interesting to reveal. As packetboat clerk he long signed the boat['s papers with the name, "Dick Brown," and the steamer named for him was christened that way.
Actually his name is Albert H. Brown, though few of his good friends and clkose associates have ever known it. Thje nickname "Dick" was applied early in life and stuck so well that the original first name became all but forgotten. As to the middle initial H. iut's just a designation in itself and that's all--no middle name.
Other boats in the Huntington-Gallipolis trade were the C.C. Bowyer, owned by Capt. George Gardner, Gallipolis; the Oriole, owned by James Miller of Huntington;p the Helen E., named for Elen Elizabeth, the daughter of Capt. W.E. McDade, Point Pleasant; the B.T. Enos and Lizzie Johnson, owned by Capts Will Bay, Ironton, and George Bay, Proctorville; the Klondike, Capt. Miles H. Brown, the Speedwell, operated by Gw//Bros., Huntington, and many others, Last year of regular activity in the Huntington-Gallipolis packet trade was 1919 and the final two boats in the trade were the John Ross, Capt. E.P. Matthews, Point Pleasant, and the speed, Capt. Lewis Tanner, Ripley, O.
Landings Listed Many rural centers through which now go almost unnoticed by the speeding motorists were regular stops for these boats. coming down from Gallipolis therewere landings, first on one side of the river and then the other, at Riggslanding, Chambersburg, Bladensburg, Glenwood, Lacey Lane, Crown Cioty,l Green Bottom, Lawrence's Landing, Millers0port, Athalia, Rural Home, Lesage and, of course, Proctorville and Guyandotte.
Along the Ohio side of the river, for 12 miles below Huntington the boats which served this trade frequently made stops at Crqawford Landing, Davidson Landing, Savage Landing, and Sheridan Coal Works. And in addition to these a short-trade packet was always ready to give a quick toot whenever it was hailed by a local passenger. In daytime these hails from the bank were signaled by the waving of a handkerchief and at night by a swinging lantern.....
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