Category Archives: Steamboat WASHINGTON
AMERICA’S FIRST STEAMBOAT EXPLOSION by John Bowman
Henry Miller Shreve’s Steamboat Washington blows her head! Eight persons scalded to death! EXCERPT from the book, “A HISTORY OF THE STEAMBOAT WASHINGTON THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL WESTERN RIVERS STEAMBOAT” © 2013 John Bowman Wheeling, WV Henry Miller Shreve laid the keel of the riverboat Washington September 10, 1815 in Wheeling, Virginia. The sternwheel steam-powered Washington was […]
Read MoreSTEAMBOATS SERVING WHEELING 1811 – 1920 By John Bowman
A 100-year listing of approximately 500 steamboats that served Wheeling businesses. The year shown is the first year they served the port and some would serve Wheeling for many years. From the Civil War years to 1900, eighteen steamboats docked daily at Wheeling. Steamboats porting at Wheeling were charged a wharfage fee of $3.00 per […]
Read MoreBOOKS by WHEELING AUTHOR John Bowman
John Bowman Author, Historian, West Virginia History Hero and Steamboat Model Builder. John’s writings concentrate on Wheeling’s boat history. Wheeling began building boats, Barges, Bateaux, Flatboats, Keelboats, and Pirogues in 1774, the first Ohio River city to build boats, and the third settlement on the ‘Western Rivers’ to have a boat building industry. ‘Western Rivers’ […]
Read MoreBOAT BUILDING WHEELING’S FIRST MAJOR INDUSTRY Book by John Bowman
BOAT BUILDING WHEELING’S FIRST MAJOR INDUSTRY With Early WHEELING History Including Maps of Streets, Businesses and Dwellings CELEBRATING WHEELING’S 250th ANNIVERSARY Book by John Bowman $19.95 Available on Amazon.com Books, and at Wheeling’s ‘Artisan Center’. The Zane Brothers Founded Wheeling in 1769. A full and complete history of this is chronicled in the first part […]
Read MoreWHEELING’S MAIN STREET COVERED BRIDGE 1816-1832 Wheeling’s First Bridge
WHEELING’S MAIN STREET COVERED BRIDGE 1816-1832 Wheeling’s first bridge At Wheeling, Virginia (West Virginia) in the winter of 1815-1816, while the steamboat Washington, then under construction, awaited its steam machinery from Brownsville, Pennsylvania, its builder, Henry Miller Shreve had George White, White’s Lead Carpenter Samuel Wait, and their carpenters build a covered bridge. This was […]
Read MoreWHEELING’S “FORT RANDOLPH” U.S. Troop Garrison 1794-1815 Wheeling’s Other Fort
“FORT RANDOLPH” U.S. TROOP GARRISON 1794-1815 WHEELING’S OTHER FORT by John Bowman Wheeling’s “Fort Randolph” was named for Edmund Jennings Randolph, a highly respected Virginian who served as an aide-de-camp to General George Washington in 1775 and was elected to the Virginia Convention of 1776. He was Virginia’s first Attorney General and Mayor of the […]
Read MoreSteamboat Stamp WASHINGTON
STEAMBOAT WASHNGTON 1816 STAMP ISSUED MAR 3, 1989 In 1929, Garnett Laidlaw Eskew writes of Wheeling, West Virginia on page 32 in his critically acclaimed book, ‘The Pageant of the Packets, A Book of American Steamboating’: “We wonder if Wheeling knows she is the birthplace of the American steamboat. Is Midland America aware that it is […]
Read MoreWHEELING BUILT STEAMBOATS the Washington
Washington Henry Miller Shreve’s 1815 stern-wheel steam-powered Washington, built on the North bank of Wheeling Creek was the first steamboat built in Wheeling, Virginia. The Washington was one hundred and thirty-four feet in length and twenty-eight feet in width with two decks, the first double-decker steamboat. Washington had two high-pressure steam engines, the first on […]
Read MoreWHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA’S BOAT YARD HISTORY
Wheeling’s Boat Yard History by John Bowman September 2016 In 1815-1816, the James Patton and James Palmer boat yards watched Henry Miller Shreve’s progress as he built Wheeling’s first steamboat, the steamboat Washington. North Wheeling’s Boat Yards The James Pemberton boat yard. In 1815, James Pemberton opened the first boat yard In North Wheeling, and […]
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