TWC = Tri-Weekly Commercial (Frankfort, Ky.)

Early References to Check

• The Navigator, by Zadok Cramer, Philadelphia 1811

• Glenn - steamers manufactured in Frankfort included: Clinton, Argo, Eagle, Plowboy, Locust Lexington (built for southern ‘market’)... quotes letter from Ebennezer H. Stedman, 1781 [sic believed to be 1817] mentioning the steamer Sylph.

ñ...In the Spring, Some Time in april, I Sent a load paper to Frankfort intending to Ship it to Louisville on a Steam Boat. So the Next day I Went down to frankfort & found the watter So low That the little Steamer ñSylphî Could not Come further than Burns landing. But Capt. Burns was at Frankfort with his Keel Boat & told me he woold take my paper on his Keel Boat & Ship it on Bord the Steam Boat at his landing.

• Glenn reference Frankfort State Journal article sometime in 1965.

• Glenn reference Frankfort State Journal article Oct. 3, 1936

• Glenn reference Argo first steamer to pass through Lock #4 in 1840....

• Glenn reference Sam Sanders resided on Ann street, Capt. and builder of Dove; Sylph and three I

• Glenn reference Capt Harry Innes Todd - piloted three Blue Wings

• Capt John Armstrong piloted Argo I through Lock #4 first time; later Argo II, John Armstrong and Ocean.

• Glenn reference duelling on board the “Bob Letcher”

• “Roaring Jack” John W. Russell steamer Empress.. rescue of steamer General Brown Novemebr 1838... New Orleans Times Democrat Mar 2, 1927; Frankfort State Journal June 9, 1968

• Glenn reference Frankfort State Journal Oct 15, 1965 Annie Pierce Stegers... Steamship [sic] Manufacturers

TWC = Tri-Weekly Commercial (Frankfort, Ky.)

FRAB = Frankfort Roundabout

Yeoman = Yeoman (Frankfort, Ky.)

1852

TWC Aug. 2, 1852 - Accident. - As the Blue Wing No. 2 was ascending the Kentucky river on Wednesday night she struck a flatboat that was floating at the time, laden with staves, her guard raking the top of the boat and crushing to death a man named Scott, from Franklin county, who was asleep on the flat, and badly injuring another man. - Louisville Times, 31st.

TWC Aug. 4, 1852 - Advertisement - ironically on same page as story of Jenny Lind’s marriage....

Frankfort and Cincinnati Packet

the fine steamer

Jenny Lind

George W. Triplett, Master, will take the place of the Diana for the present, and make her regular trips —

Leaving Frankfort on Mondays and Fridays, at 9 o’clock a.m.

Leaving Cincinnati on Sundays and Wednesdays, at 12 m.

The boat has been well fitted up, and passengers and freighters will find every attention given to their wants. Apply on board July 29, 1852 [this Jenny Lind not in Ways?]

TWC Sep. 6, 1852 - Advertisements

Frankfort and Cincinnati Packet

the fine steamer

Diana

George W. Triplett, Master, will make her regular trips —

Leaving Frankfort on Mondays and Fridays, at 9 o’clock a.m.

Leaving Cincinnati on Sundays and Wednesdays, at 12 m.

The boat has been well fitted up, and passengers and freighters will find every attention given to their wants. Apply on board Sept. 6, 1852

TWC Nov. 1, 1852 - Advertisements

Louisville and N. Orleans Packet.

The steamer Eclipse, Sturgeon, master, leaves for New Orleans on Saturday November 20. For freight or passage, apply to

WH Watson, Agent

Frankfort, Nov. 12 [Ways 1688 - big write-up]

TWC Nov. 17, 1852 - Marietta, Ohio, Nov. 13. - The mail packet Buckeye Bell exploded both her boilers 12 miles above here. No ladies were injured. Amond the killed are John Barbour, of Pittsburgh, James Daniels, engineer; John, West, of Coal Run; C. S. Butler, Ed. Atherton, of Beverly; Wm. Stull, and 10 others.

Injured - Capt. Hahn, arm broken and badly scalded; Whiscon, clerk, leg broken and both feet and ankles smashed - probably will die; Calvin Steele; Senator C. C. Corny, leg broken; E. Buckmar, and many others whose names are unknown. The boat was torn to pieces and every flue collapsed in one boiler. The other can’t be found. The accident is attributed to gross recklessness of the engineers, one of whom, at the time of the explosion, was on the safety valve.

TWC Dec. 10, 1852 - The Explosion of the Geneva. - The telegraph has already informed us of the explosion of the steamer Geneva. The following from the St. Louis News gives the details of the disaster. Capt. Perry, the commander of the Geneva, who, it is feared, cannot survive the injuries sustained, was Captain of the Telegraph No. 1 when she first came out:

The stern wheel steamer Geneva, commanded by Capt. J. Perry, left this city last evening, bound for the Illinois river, and while at the shore, nearly opposite the mouth of the Missouri, she blew up, and afterwards burnt to the water’s edge. The accident occurred while the boat was lying at the shore, wooding, and while the greater portion of the crew were on shore, or the list of killed and wounded would have embraced, perhaps, nearly every soul belonging to the boat.

In a few moments after the terrible accident the steamer Hibernia No. 2 came up, and rendered every assistance to get the living as well as the dead from the burning wreck. So far as can be ascertained, the Geneva had over eighteen or twenty persons on board, of whom four were killed and missing, and a number severely injured. The Hibernia landed all taken form the wreck at Alton, and they were brought down to the city this morning by the Amazonia. Mr. Smith, clerk of the boat, has furnished us with a list of all brought to this city. They were as follows: Capt. Perry, dangerously injured; Wm. Hemly, mate, slightly hurt; Geo. Fulton, first, and Alexander Kelsey, second engineer, severely injured; Wm. Gall, pilot, severely injured; the stewart, two cooks, and a cabin boy, names not known, more or less bruised and injured; five or six deck hands and firemen were also brought down, none of whom are seriously hurt; three deck hands or firemen were taken from the wreck to a house in the neighborhood, one of whom has an arm broken, and other severe injuries.

The killed and missing are Capt. Chas. Deane, of this city, and of the firm of Carson & Deane, commission and produce merchants; his body has not been found, and it is presumed to have been consumed with the wreck. When last seen, he and Mr. Johnson were in the forward part of the boat, and near the clerk’s office. Captain Deane is believed to have been the only passenger on the boat, on his way to the Illinois river, for the purpose of attending the shipment of produce by the boat.

Willis C. Johnson, first clerk, was taken from the wreck in a dying condition, and survived less than an hour, during which time he was unable to speak. The second clerk, a brother of the deceased, was on shore at the time and escaped unhurt. The barkeeper and watchman, whose names we could not learn, are missing. These four are all the killed and missing known up to the present time.

Capt. Perry, who was on the hurricane deck at the time is dangerously wounded. He was brought to this city on the Amazonia, and has been taken to the hospital. His injuries are of a serious nature, and there is very little hope for his recovery. Both of the engineers were seriously hurt; one was on duty and the other asleep at the time.

The explosion was apparently from the top of the boilers, blowing directly upward and tearing all the forward part of the boat to shreds. In an instant the wreck was on fire and burnt to the waters edge. The persons injured do not appear to have been scalded, but burnt, as if seared with a hot iron. We are told there was a want of water in the boilers, and they went off as if filled with powder. The report was heard for a considerable distance and resembled the sound of a heavy cannon.

The boat was owned by Captain Perry and the first clerk Mr. Johnson. She has been out three or four years, and formerly ran on the Ohio during low stages of that river. They purchased her last summer and have made several trips to the upper Mississippi.

TWC Dec. 24, 1852 - Departure of the Eclipse - ... still delayed ...now Dec. 29th

TWC Dec. 27, 1852 - Life Preservers. - The new steamboat law requires steamboats to be provided with life preservers, but as the kind of preserver is not specified by the steamboat men are providing themselves with whatever their ingenuity may suggest. Some have tin boxes, and others tin cases fastened to the bottoms of their chairs, and other regular life preservers.

Capt. DeHart, one of the oldest and most experienced boatmen in the West, suggests that the cotton or upper mattrasses of boats be covered with gum or rubber cloth, “which is impervious to water, and will prove the most beneficial life preservers that can be used. Loops or handles can be attached to the mattress to hold on to, and if occasion require, it would float two or three persons. These mattrasses are always useful and needed for the berths, and will involve but little extra expense, and take up no extra room, but be always at hand, in case a boat should sink in the night, and the passengers are abed, all they would have to do, would be to grasp their mattrass and trust themselves to the water.

Hugh Wilkins, the upholsterer on Wall st., has invented a life preserver in the shape of a pillow with a water proof cover, and loop handles at either end - Lou. Cour.

TWC Dec. 27, 1852 - From the Cincinnati Gazette, 22d Dec.

Arrest of Parties Concerned in the Burning of the Martha Washington.

since writing the article in yesterday’s Gazette, we have learned the following additional particulars from the Atlas of last evening.

At the usual hour of Change on Monday, Mr. Wm. Kissane, once clerk for Pugh & Alvord, now of the firm of Smith & Kissane, Soap and Star Candle Factors, on Canal and Vine streets, having finished his business with the merchants, stepped out of College Hall, when he was tapped upon the shoulder by an officer and requested to enter a carriage, he was driven immediately to the depot of the L.M. Railroad.

Lorenzo Chapin, of the boot and shoe Manufactory of J. S. Cheney, over Clayton’s Jewelry Store, corner of Sycamore and Columbia, was arrested about the same time, as he came down stairs, going to dinner. Amassa Chapin, his brother, was arrested at the foot of the stairs, as he was returning from dinner.

James W. Chandler, of Covington, Ky., was arrested near the same hour by a preconcerted arrangement of the others, who had decoyed him to that point for simultaneous arrest, at the corner of Sycamore and Third streets.

The prisoners were separately conveyed by carriage to the depot, and confronted each other as the cars were about starting.

The developments of this strange affair shows that some time in the month of December of last year, certain parties bought the steamer Martha Washington, of James McGregor, of this city. J. N. Cumings became Captain, J. G. Nicholson, Clerk, and W. H. Holland, Mate. The boat was loaded by different parties of this city, and left our wharf in January, and on the 14th of that month, in the neighborhood of island No. 65, on the Mississippi river, the boat was burned - boat and cargo total loss.

The charge against the parties arrested, is that they by collusion with officers of the boat, with fraudulent bills of lading and false oaths there to, obtain insurance in the following offices, when in reality there were few or no goods shipped.

James Chandler had secured $1,200 insurance on pistols in the “National” in this city, when the supposition is that none were shipped. The office refused to pay. Chandler sued.

Capt. Cummings secured $4,500 insurance on the freight list of the boat in the Fireman’s and Mechanics’ of Madison, W. B. Cassily agent in this city, promptly paid it.

Lyman Cole secured $8,000 insurance in the Fireman’s Insurance Company of this city on Boots, Shoes and Kossuth Hats, said also to have been shipped. The sum was paid by Josiah Lawrence, Esq., before he died.

G. P. Stevens insured $3,869 on an invoice of boots and shoes, bought of Lyman Cole, in the Protection Agency of this city. He also insured in the Etna Agency $4,874 on goods purported to have been bought of John Edwards. Lyman Cole insured $5,500 on boots and shoes in the Cincinnati Agency of the Detroit Insurance Co. Cole sued the Company, and this has had a long examination in the Courts of Detroit.

Capt. Cummings effected an insurance through an innocent person, of $4,500 in A. S. Chew’s Agency of the Phoenix, of St. Louis. - Also, a large amount in the Charleston Company, which is in suit.

The Union Mutual, of New York, had $10,000 - $4,800 on 1,600 doz. sheepskins, and 5,200 on 26,000 white sole leather, said to have been shipped.

Chas. Lane & Co., of Boston, innocent parties, advanced Kissane $4,800 on the 9th of January, on a policy in the Equitable Insurance Company, of Boston, of $5,934, on 300 packages said to have been shipped on the Martha Washington.

James Lee, of Boston, innocent party is insured to protect drafts, for $5,980, on 167 barrels of pork, said to be shipped by Cole, and 83 barrels of pork and 100 tierces of lard, by Kissane.

Adam Chapin effected, as the boat passed Louisville, insurance with the Louisville agency of the Maidson Insurance Company, for $4,200 on 200 cases of boots and shoes, said to have been shipped by said Chapin, in Cincinnati. This case was sued for by Kissane.

A thousand rumors are current in reference to every point of this case. The drayman who hauled the goods has acknowledged the perjury. The Mr. Cheney makes his revelations. Mr. Filley, partner of the Chapins, is reported to have been opposed to the scheme, and to avoid the threats of parties to leave the city, to have secreted himself in Illinois to escape violence, that on his dying between the 24th of last October he charged these parties with conspiracy.

There where other insurances besides those noted, swelling the pretended amount of shipment to an aggregate beyond the reasonableness of ordinary shipments.

Mr. Kissane is of Irish extraction, a Canadian by birth, unmarried, but having an aged and deeply afflicted mother.

The two Chapins have been for several years, with two other brothers, extensive shoe dealers and manufactured in this city. Having some time since failed, the establishment was conducted under the style and name of J. S. Cheney.

Mr. Chandler, a resident of Covington, was we believe, a candidate for City Marshal.

Capt. Cummings and Holland, the mate, are at present up Red River.

Mr. Lyman Cole, brother of Horace Cole, and formerly merchant of Pearl street, was no doubt arrested at Oxford, yesterday.

TWC Dec. 27, 1852 - Particulars of the Loss of the Steamer Western World.

We copy the following from the St. Louis News of 22d inst:

Capt. Fulton, who was in charge of the boat at the time of the accident, returned on the Lady Pike this morning, from the mouth of the Ohio, where they were landed by the Hill. The officers and the crew, with many of the passengers, who lost their baggage, and were unable to proceed on their trip downward, returned. They bring full particulars of the disaster.

The accident occurred at Princeton Bar, about one hundred miles above Vicksburg, at 4 1/2 o’clock in the morning. There was no fog, but it was very dark, and one or both boats mistook the signals which were rang by the bells. The Hill was ascending at the time, and struck the Western World just forward of the boilers, cutting her down so that the water rushed in, causing her to careen so much, that she completely capsized, in less than twenty minutes after the collision.

There were on board 65 deck and 33 cabin passengers. Of the former, 13 were drowned, and one of the crew, a negro man belonging to Mr. Grundy, of Ballard county, Kentucky.

Of the deck passengers, Mr. Rice and family, came on board at St. Louis, and were emigrating to Texas. There were nice persons in the family, five of whom were drowned.

Mr. Jones, and family, eleven persons came on board at Hickman, Ky. All lost except Mr. Jones.

Mr. Sullivan, wife, and infant, of St. Louis, going to New Orleans, all three lost; making fourteen persons who are known, to have perished.

None of the cabin passengers or officers were drowned, but all of them lost their baggage. A Southern mail on board was also lost. The Hill took off those who were saved from the wreck, and landed them at Cairo. Some of the passengers who were bound South, got off at different places to await boats that were bound down.

Capt. Alex. Norton is sole owner of the boat. He was not on board at the time, having got off at Memphis and returned to this city to attend to some business. He left the boat in charge of Mr. Fulton, the first clerk. She left port on the 10th inst., with a fair cargo, which was full by the time she reached Memphis. Mr. Dubbs, her agent, has a list of her freight, as follows: 3,000 bbls. flour, 30 hhd tobacco, 160 boxes tobacco, 200 bbls. whiskey, 100 hhds. bacon, 15 kegs shot, 50 kegs and 75 tierces lard, 50 tierces beef, 40 coils rope, 3,000 sacks corn; 500 sacks bran, 350 sacks oats, 83 head of cattle, and 150 bbls. pork.