Search for content in message boards

Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Posted: 27 May 2008 10:43AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Fair/Fehr/Fare/Fahr
I am interested in any information about migration to Ohio on the river in flat boats. Time-frame would be 1800 to 1803. I need passenger lists, descriptions of life along the river and incidents that may have happened during this time-frame. Anything at all would be appreciated. Thanks, Jo Ellen

Re: Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Posted: 28 May 2008 1:16PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: FINICAL; RAMSEY; RAMSAY; LOCKHART; MOUNT
It's a good question! I think it might be helpful if we expand the time frame, however, from 1795 to 1850. More people will be interested and you might pick up some valuable resources.

Carrie Eldridge has produced some specialized map books that I've found very helpful. She describes the trails and rivers and migration routes to/from the river, etc. She has a whole series, including one specific to this area. I've just moved, and mine are still packed away...but I think you can google her name and come up with the titles.

My ancestors [Finical and Ramsay/Ramsey] moved down the river, first into Kentucky from Pennsylvania, after 1820. The siblings then split up and went on into Ohio and Indiana.

All best, Darlene C. Joyce, CG, Minnesota

Re: Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Posted: 15 Aug 2008 7:58PM GMT
Classification: Query
There were several different types of boats that were called flatboats. One was what we would probably call a raft, which was simply a lot of logs tied together. The more common type was a raft with a house like structure on it. Being that there was no method of guiding the boat, two men, one at the front and one at the rear, would each have a long pole that they put in the river to direct the boat. In that time period, there the rivers were very unpredictable. So, families would gather at the mouth of the river in the fall, build their boat during the cold months and wait for the spring rains. rassler@insightbb.com

Re: Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Posted: 16 Jan 2009 5:51PM GMT
Classification: Query
Hi Jo Ellen,
If you have learned anything, I am very interested also. This could use a study group. So far, I have never seen passenger lists. I had looked at this before due to an ancestor working on a boat. Don't know which kind though, my time period takes it into steamboats. I have seen captains list for some of those-available online.

I recently purchased a book Afloat on the Ohio by Reuben Gold Thwaites. It is a reprint of an 1897 edition -6 week float by skiff from Redstone, Penn. to Cairo, IL. His appendix lists many journals from trips dated from 1750-1876. Some of the names in the Appendix are :
Christopher Gist
George Washington*best on subject in author's estimation
Harry Gordon
T. Pownall
Thomas Hutchins
Thaddeus Mason Harris*trip by flatboat
and much more.

I will be checking to see if any of these published journals are still available.

I have a google search running - I used flat boat ohio river migration. There is a lot to read with 17,900 links.

On the following website:

http://www.eswp.com/PDF/PEfall05_13-15.pdf

I learned the following:
"The pioneers
gained access to the Allegheny
River at Olean, the Conemaugh
River at Johnstown, the
Youghiogheny River at West Newton,
the Monongahela River at
Brownsville or the Ohio River at
Pittsburgh, Wellsburg or Wheeling.
In 1788, 323 boats passed down the
Ohio, carrying 5,885 people, 2,714
horses, 937 cattle, 245 sheep, 24
hogs and 267 wagons."

This is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Pittsburgh article. Records must have been kept somwhere for them to have the #s anyway.

Finding your posting was of great help to me.
Thank you very much!
Deb

Re: Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Posted: 17 Jan 2009 4:32PM GMT
Classification: Query
It is so glad to know there are others with the same dilemma... I will look into the info you have given me and would also like to give you some info. In my research, I have come along a book that gives directions for navigating the rivers, by Zadok Cramer called The Navigator. Here is the website I found it at. Very interesting! Maybe too early for your research, but interesting read nonetheless. I have a person in Cincinnati looking into passenger listings for me. I'll let you know any findings I have. Thanks for emailing... Jo Ellen http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ag...

Re: Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Posted: 17 Jan 2009 4:37PM GMT
Classification: Query
I am sorry for not getting back to you sooner, but lost time... Do you know of any passenger lists available maybe in Cincinnati? Also do you know where a family from Frederick, MD would board the river boats? Would they go to Wheeling? Thanks for the info... Jo Ellen

Re: Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Posted: 17 Jan 2009 4:47PM GMT
Classification: Query
Sorry I have not returned your email in such a long time, but time got away from me. Thanks for Carrie's name. I have googled her and emailed her with a few questions. Please let me know if I can do some research for you here in Ohio... Jo Ellen (Fair) Mason.

Re: Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Posted: 18 Jan 2009 3:30AM GMT
Classification: Query
Passenger listings in Cinncinati? Oh, the link says I am not a recognized user.

Today I spent reading online on one of the links I found and coincedently the book "4 Months in a Sneak-Box" by Nathaniel H. Bishop-1879, is also listed in the appendix of the book I mentioned to you. That is an interesting craft.

On a Heritage Quest search, from a book entitled Monongahela, the River and its Region by Richard T. Riley it said that owners of keelboats were required by law to give them names and register them at the custom house in Pittsburgh and "the records there give the names of many",... Maybe there are still records at Pittsburgh?

I learned that keelboats had a crew of 10 people, barges 50. There was a boat specializing in passengers called a packet boat I saw another term for the flat boat possibly, called Kentucky flats or broad-horns. Seems quite a few authors use family boats or shantyboats and I am not sure if these are also flat boats or something closer to a houseboat.

Very fascinating.

Deb

Re: Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Posted: 18 Jan 2009 3:40AM GMT
Classification: Query
The books I have been looking at mention Wheeling quite heavily and they also made flat boats that could be purchased there.

Re: Migration along the Ohio River on flat boats

Posted: 4 Feb 2009 9:41PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Kendall, Wetzel
If you are still interested, I have a very well documented story about how Jeremiah Kendall and Lewis Wetzel built a flatboat at Wheeling, WV and floated down "Old Man River" to New Orleans. At one point they were attacked by Indians.....it's a really great story. Time frame is about 1805 or so. Let me know if you would be interested.

-Lynette (Salsbury) Greenwald

PS
Have you ever seen "How The West Was Won"? There is scene in the beginning in which the family is going down the river on a flatboat and capsizes in rapids. It is actually, what I think, is the worst part of the movie, but it is supposed to be in Ohio :)
per page

Find a board about a specific topic