The riverboat captain is a storyteller. Captain Don Sanders shares the stories of his long association with the river — from discovery to a way of love and life. This a part of a long and continuing story.
By Capt. Don Sanders
Special to NKyTribune
At times, the simplest thought may be the key needed to open a locked door. That happened recently when a photo of a round, brass, plate-like medallion arrived in my message box from steam enthusiast Liam Dancey. According to his Facebook account, Liam has listed the Erie Steam Shovel Company as his employer for the past 15 years and 8 months. Sounds impressive to me.
“Penny for your thoughts, Sir,” Liam began, “appears to be handmade. I’ve never seen a plate like this before.”
The disk, of indeterminate size, was obviously cast in brass or bronze with clear lettering. Across the center, the name of a steamboat the plate came from, stood out in bold relief, the “Str. J. H. MENGE.” The rest of the cast lettering told the tale: CINCINNATI – PATENTED STEAM STEERER – THE WM T. JOHNSTON CO – CINCINNATI, OHIO.”
After studying the artifact, I eventually answered Liam — “Off the cuff, I’d say that is the manufacturer’s plate for the Wm T. Johnston steam steering gear installed aboard the Steamer J. H. MENGE.”
A full 24 hours passed, and Liam hadn’t replied to my guess, so after a bit more poking around, I sent him a bit more information to ponder:
“Crawley & Johnston, Cincinnati, built steam steering gear for river steamboats in the 1890s. Invented by William T. Johnston, their steam steering rig was still in use as late as the early 1900s. The excursion steamer J.S. had a steam steering gear produced by Crawley & Johnston. Cincinnati was a major center for steamboat machinery in that era. Other Cincinnati builders included E.W. Vanduzen (bells) and the Cincinnati Marine Railway Company (hulls).”
It wasn’t long before I received a reply from Liam, complete with photos of the J. H. MENGE:
“Fantastic information! I knew you’d have some great insight into this piece, and appreciate the research! It appears the J.H. MENGE was a cotton boat. Way’s says it was built in Jeffersonville, 1910, and spent the beginning of its life on the Lower Mississippi.”
There’s just one definitive authority, Captain Frederick Way, Jr., as Liam noted. Most specifically, Cap’n Way’s PACKET DIRECTORY, 1848-1994, notes:
“J. H. MENGE, Way 2844 — Sternwheel Packet with a wooden hull. Built at Jeffersonville, IN by Howard, 1910. 188 x 38 x 5.8 feet. Cotton guards, 50 feet wide overall. Gillett & Eaton compound engines, 13s, 26s x and 8-foot piston stroke. Three boilers, each 44″ by 30 feet. Built for the Mississippi Packet Company, and ran New Orleans-Ouachita River, spring 1911, then New Orleans to Vicksburg.”
In July of 1916, she was sold to Captain Owen F. Burke, Mobile, and renamed the M. A. BURKE. Captain Burke ran the steamboat from Mobile to the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers. Just three years later, in 1919, steamboat broker John F. Klein bought the BURKE and briefly ran it in the Vicksburg – Crescent City trade. By May 1919, the boat left New Orleans for more northerly waters, where she lay the rest of the summer at Mound City, Illinois.
By October, however, she sold to the Louisville & Cincinnati Packet Company. She entered the Cincinnati and Louisville trade, still carrying the name M. A. BURKE and decked out in her wide, southern cotton guards. But by February 1920, she was reconstructed into a typical Ohio River packetboat and renamed the JOHN W. HUBBARD, for the Pittsburgh “shovel king,” Captain John W. Hubbard.
Captain John Winslow Hubbard, a Pittsburgh millionaire, inherited a shovel-manufacturing company and a fortune. He owned Hubbard and Company, which manufactured axes, shovels, saws, and hoes. In 1912, he formed the Ohio and Mississippi Navigation Company. He financed the Louisville and Cincinnati Packet Company and was involved with it from 1918 to 1932. Hubbard was also head of the Ohio River Transportation Company, running the steamers QUEEN CITY and the SENATOR CORDILL. For a time, he financed the Campbell Transportation Company and was known as the “Pittsburgh Commodore,” with the largest fleet of packets on the Ohio River.
Captain Hubbard owned various other steamboats: the CINCINNATI, LIBERTY–later renamed CITY OF PARKERSBURG, KANAWHA, SUNSHINE–renamed PRINCESS (1921), ADMIRAL DEWEY (1912-13, sold in 1914), JEWEL (1914). He built (with R. Emerson) the ECLIPSE. The packet JOHN W. HUBBARD was named for him, as was a steam towboat. Capt. John W. Hubbard died at age 81 on June 3, 1947.
The packet JOHN W. HUBBARD (Way 3128), according to Captain Way’s Packet directory, was a sternwheeler with a wooden hull built in 1910, originally as the J. H. MENGE, and then renamed the M. A. BURKE, a cotton packet before being sold to the Louisville & Cincinnati Packet Company, where she entered trade between the two cities in 1919.
By 1920, the boat underwent a major reconstruction, emerging as an Ohio River packet, with the boiler deck lowered and the broad cotton guards on the Main deck removed. The reconfigured steamboat emerged with a new, proud name —JOHN W. HUBBARD — and continued operating between “Ragtown and the Falls City,” with Captain Ed Williamson in command.
The HUBBARD and the QUEEN CITY were the regular packets between the two cities, along with the double-cabin CINCINNATI and the KENTUCKY, until 1929. When the L&C Packet Company went bankrupt in 1932, during the Great Depression, the HUBBARD became the property of Greene Line Steamers, Inc., of Cincinnati, which never operated her.
Instead, the once magnificent steamboat was beached out at “Pumpkin Patch,” above Jeffersonville, Indiana, where River Coal, better known as the “Combine,” once fleeted their barges and towboats while waiting for “coal boat water” high enough to get over the Falls of the Ohio River.
Sadly, the packet JOHN W. HUBBARD eventually rotted down there and “littered the landscape for several years,” according to Captain Way.
As a former employee of the Greene Line, I was at a loss understanding why the Greene family allowed the HUBBARD to fall into decay and not put it into service. When I asked Frank X. Prudent, former DELTA QUEEN crewman and one of the most knowledgeable steamboat historians this side of the turf, this question, he responded:
“The JOHN W. HUBBARD was probably worn out by that time. It would have been in the early days of the Depression, and they had better and newer boats. The Greene Line got her when they bought the rights to the L&C Packet Company trade from the bankruptcy court.”
Makes sense.
There, you have it. Just a simple inquiry about a round, brass plate found in a second-hand store led to an extended search to uncover the purpose and manufacturer of the rediscovered relic and the largely forgotten steamboat from which it came.
We also followed that boat through three name changes and as many trades from hauling cotton on the Lower Mississippi, Ouachita, Alabama, and Tombigbee Rivers, to the Ohio River, where she ended her days as a premier packetboat operating in the Louisville & Cincinnati trade. It only goes to show what asking “a penny for your thoughts” might lead to.
Captain Don Sanders is a river man. He has been a riverboat captain with the Delta Queen Steamboat Company and with Rising Star Casino. He learned to fly an airplane before he learned to drive a “machine” and became a captain in the USAF. He is an adventurer, a historian and a storyteller. Now, he is a columnist for the NKyTribune, sharing his stories of growing up in Covington and his stories of the river. Hang on for the ride — the river never looked so good.
Purchase Captain Don Sanders’ The River book
Capt. Don Sanders The River: River Rat to steamboatman, riding ‘magic river spell’ to 65-year adventure is now available for $29.95 plus handling and applicable taxes. This beautiful, hardback, published by the Northern Kentucky Tribune, is 264-pages of riveting storytelling, replete with hundreds of pictures from Capt. Don’s collection — and reflects his meticulous journaling, unmatched storytelling, and his appreciation for detail. This historically significant book is perfect for the collections of every devotee of the river.
You may purchase your book by mail from the Northern Kentucky Tribune — or you may find the book for sale at all Roebling Books locations and at the Behringer Crawford Museum and the St. Elizabeth Healthcare gift shops.
Click here to order your Captain Don Sanders’ ‘The River’ now.