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A STEAMBOAT'S TALEby
Bob Bowman | |
Lying
in the Trinity River at Parker’s Bluff, near Palestine,
a cluster of remnants from an old sidewheeler steamboat serve as reminders of
an era when cotton was king in much of East
Texas.
The A.S. Ruthven, weighing 144 tons and measuring 127
feet long, was built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1860 by a shipyard that turned out
288 steamboats.
While most of the steamboats were placed in service on
the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers, the Ruthven came to Texas, where
she was placed in service hauling cotton down the Trinity River to Galveston. |
| | "Galveston,
Texas, The First Cotton Export Port of the World"
Postcard courtesy
rootsweb.com/
%7Etxpstcrd/ |
But the craft had
barely established herself on the Trinity when Texas seceded from the Union and
the Ruthven’s owners leased her to the Texas Marine Department for use
as a transport vessel. On the last day of 1861 she arrived at Galveston
with a pair of artillery pieces, part of a shipment of fourteen for the defense
of Galveston Island during the Civil War.
In 1862 the Ruthven was
running between Galveston and Buffalo Bayou and during October of that year, she
was inoperable and had to be towed up Buffalo Bayou to escape the Union attack
on Galveston. |
When
the Civil War ended, the Ruthven went back to the Trinity River and, with
the Texas cotton markers open again, she resumed hauling bales from East
Texas to Galveston.
But the Trinity was a fickle river. Some boats lingered too long upstream and
found themselves trapped by low waters and were forced to wait until spring rains
lifted the river.
During
the 1866-87 cotton season, the Ruthven made successful runs from East Texas
to Galveston, delivering more than 2,200 bales. |
| | "Loading
Cotton, Galveston, Texas"
Postcard courtesy rootsweb.com/
%7Etxpstcrd/ |
In March of 1867, the Galveston Weekly News reported: “Coming up, the Ruthven
met 14 flatboats at various points, all loaded with cotton for Galveston. We understand
that the Ruthven will go as high up as Wild Cat Bluff and will return up the river
and remain above Magnolia until next fall. The snow, sleet and hail fell on the
deck of the boat to a depth of six inches. The cold was so severe that the steam
pipes of the steamers and sawmills were frozen and burst. Such severe weather
in the month of March was never known before.”
The Ruthven continued
to serve customers on the Trinity through the l860s, but with growing competition
from the railroads, the Ruthven was pulled from service. In the early 1870s
George Anderson Wright of Palestine
bought the old sidewheeler for $900, moved her to Parker’s Bluff, and began to
dismantle parts of the vessel.
The steamboat’s boilers, engines and machinery
were removed and sold to gins and sawmills in the area. The cabin was also removed
and incorporated into the construction of a large Palestine home. The hull of
the boat was left to deteriorate in the Trinity.
In
the 1970s an archeology team from the Texas Historical Commission traveled to
Parker’s Bluff to determine if any of the Ruthven’s wreckage could be salvaged.
While the boat’s hull had survived nearly 130 years in the river, the remains
were in poor shape and had been scattered along the river. |
| | Palestine
Chamber of Commerce
TE photo |
To the general public,
the only visible reminder of the Ruthven is an anchor recovered by a group
of young men in the l920s or 1930s.
The anchor was placed on the grounds
of the Palestine Chamber of Commerce, where it remains today as a reminder of
the role steamboats once played in the development of the Trinity River and its
communities. |
All
Things Historical
September 18, 2005 Column
Published with permission
(Distributed by the
East Texas Historical Association. Bob Bowman of Lufkin is a past president of
the Association and the author of 30 books about East Texas.) |
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