USA > New York > Tioga County > Owego > Owego. Some account of the early settlement of the village in Tioga County, N.Y., called Ah-wa-ga by the Indians, which name was corrupted by gradual evolution into Owago, Owego, Owegy and finally Owego > Part 25
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A meeting of the stockholders was held at the Owego hotel in this village August 21 and a board of managers was elected, which was composed as follows: James Pumpelly, William A. Ely. Henry W. Camp, Latham A. Bur- rows, Thomas Farrington, Jonathan Platt, Amos Martin, George J. Pum- pelly, and George W. Hollenback, of Owego, and Samuel D. Ingham, Ed- ward Lynch, Henry Colt, and Henry Pettibone, of Wilkes-Barre. James Pumpelly was chosen president of the board, William Platt treasurer, and judge Burrows secretary.
The same month John Hopkins, a civil engineer, made an examination of the river between Owego and Wilkes-Barre, for the purpose of ascer- taining its susceptibility of improve- ment for the purposes of steamboat navigation and to estimate the expense of making a channel fifty feet in width (except in rocky places, where 80 or 100 feet was considered the proper width), with at least two feet depth of water at low water. Mr. Hopkins began his examination at Owego on Ang. S. The distance from Owego to Wilkes-Barre is 120 miles, and the cost of removing obstructions and making the channel, as estimated by him was $10,254. It was the in-
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tention of the company, after having built its boat, to ascertain if a good business could be done at the time of high water, and if so, to improve the river so that boats could run in time of low water as well.
Correspondence was opened with Thomas Blanchard relative to the con- struction of a steamboat, to be built upon his patented plan. Mr. Blanch- ard was a Connecticut man, who had gained some celebrity as the inventor of the lathe for turning gun-stocks, shoe-lasts, and other irregular forms by a self-directing operation. He had built boats on the Connecticut river. He had also built the "Genesee," a stemboat on the Genesee river, run- ning between Rochester and Avon, 86 feet in length, 16 feet in breadth, and drawing 18 inches of water. She was used as a towboat and cost $7,500.
In the winter of 1829-30 he built at Pittsburgh a steamboat for the navi- gation of the Alleghany river on the same plan of his Connecticut river boats. She was named "Alleghany" and was the first boat to ascend the river to Olean. She was 90 feet long and 17 feet wide. The boat was launched in March, 1830.
On her third trip, while between Warren, Pa., and Olean, N. Y., she ar- rived opposite the Indian village of Cornplanter. Here a deputation of gen- tlemen waited on this ancient and well-known chief and invited him on board this new, and to him wonderful visitor, a steamboat. He was, in all his native simplicity of dress and man- ner of living, lying on his couch, made of rough pine boards, and covered with deer-skins and blankets. His habitation, a two-story log house, was
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in a state of decay, without furniture, except a few benches, and wooden bowls and spoons to eat out of. He was a smart. active man. seemingly possessed of all his strength, mind, and perfect health. He with his son, Charles, 60 years of age, with his son- in-law, came on board the boat and remained on board until she passed six miles up, and then returned in his own canoe, after having expressed great pleasure.
When James Pumpelly made in- quiry relative to Mr. Blanchard, Wil- liam B. Calhoun, of Springfield, Mass .. then speaker of the Massachusetts house of representatives, in a letter. commended him as a successful builder of steamboats on the Connec- ticut, Alleghany, and Kenebeck rivers. "I have been for many years person- ally and even intimately acquainted with Mr. Blanchard," writes Mr. Cal- houn. "He is a thorough, practical mechanic, possessing great ingenuity and sagacity, and no visionary. His early education was deficient, but the powers of his mind are, in my estima- tion, of high character and vigor. He is also a man of excellent heart, tho' sometimes eccentric and queer in his ways. . I can furnish you, if necessary, as many certificates as you could wish from our very best citizens of Mr. B's undisputed merits in refer- ence to steam navigation on our river."
Mr. Blanchard came to Owego and on Sept. 17, 1834, contracted to build a boat 100 feet long and fourteen feet wide, with his patent arches on each side, for $12,500. These arches were wooden ones, running fore and aft and sustained the principal weight
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of the boat's machinery. The boat was to be provided with four steam en- gines. Two of them were to be ten- inch cylinder and four feet stroke, to propel a thirteen-foot wheel, with buckets ten feet long, at the stern of the boat. The other two engines, of ten-inch diameter and two and one- half foot stroke, were to propel two paddle-wheels, one at each side of the boat, eleven feet in diameter, with buckets four feet long. The boat had two boilers, and was to draw not to ex- ceed eighteen inches of water. The boilers were of the construction known as the "log boiler," flue boilers being then unknown. The whole power of the engines was to be not less than fifty-horse power. The pro- pelling power was to exceed twice that required on a lake boat of the same size-that is the paddle-wheel pro- pelling power was to be two or more times equal to that required on lake waters and the steam power in like proportion. It was believed that such a boat run in shallow water by extra- ordinary propelling power could navi- gate the Susquehanna river from Owego anywhere below.
The side wheels were exactly equal in power to the stern wheel. When in still water the side wheels were turned in an opposite direction from the stern wheel the boat stood still, mov- ing in neither direction. The passen- ger cabin, which was near the bow of the boat, was fourteen feet wide and sixteen feet long. The boat was near- ly a flat-bottom one.
The contract required the boat to be finished and put into operation on May 1, 1835. Mr. Blanchard bound
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himself not to build any other boat with his patent improvements to run on the Susquehanna. George J. Pum- pelly, judge Burrows, and William A. Ely were appointed a building con- mittee, and the construction of the boat was begun in the latter part of September, 1834. It was built on the bank of the river, back of where Gur- don H. Pumpelly's house now stands under the superintendence of Capt. John J. Tobey, of New York. The iron work and machinery were made in New York and shipped by canal in Oc- tober.
Capt. Tobey began work Oct. 1, 1834. The boat was built under the superin- tendence of Mr. Bampton, a ship car- penter from New York, with a force of from five to ten hands. The winter was a cold one, with much snow, and the boat was not fully completed when she was launched in April, 1835.
There was some ceremony incident to the launching, which was witnessed by many spectators, and George J. Pumpelly christened her the "Susque- hanna" by breaking a bottle of wine over the bow, in accordance with a time-honored custom. The bottle was attached to the eud of a piece of rope and swung over his head. Then the boat was towed up to an old plaster dock, near the foot of Court street. where the arch and boilers were placed in. The cabin and the painting and glazing were not completed until two months later.
May 5, 1835, the "Susquehanna" was run about five miles up the river and performed well. The next day she was run two or three miles down the
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river through swifter water and came up in good style.
At 6:40 o'clock in the morning of May 7 the boat started on her first trip to Wilkes-Barre with James Pum- pelly, Jonathan Platt, judge Burrows, and other prominent men on board, stopping at Athens, Towanda, and Me- shoppen, and arriving at Wilkes-Barre at 4:40 p. m. She was welcomed by large crowds of people, who lined the bank at the various places where she stopped.
She started the next day on her re- turn trip with about twenty passen- gers on board. She arrived at Tunk- hannock at 5:30 o'clock. The next day while passing through a rapid known as "horse race," it was found that the shaft attached to the stern wheel had become nearly twisted off, and the boat was compelled to lie at Meshoppen two or three weeks for re- pairs. The forward wheels were ren- dered almost entirely useless, the packing of a cylinder having blown out by force of the steam, owing to the cylinder covers being too thin. Capt. Tobey was compelled to come to Owe- go (a distance of seventy miles) for a blacksmith. They made a forge and repaired the shaft. The side wheels being useless, the remainder of the trip to Owego was made by using the stern wheel alone.
Capt. Tobey was captain of the boat on her first trip. James Springsteen was engineer and Ebenezer Allen pilot. The passenger fare from Owego to Wilkes-Barre was $2.50 and the re- turn fare $3.50. The boat carried but fifty passengers.
In June Capt. Tobey made his sec- ond trip to Wilkes-Barre and returned
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two days afterward without any diffi- culty. He brought up a cargo of twenty barrels of flour and between twenty and thirty passengers. That year there was a great scarcity of pro- visions, particularly of flour, which was selling here for ten dollars a bar- rel, which was a very high price for those times. This was the most im- portant service rendered to Owego by the boat during her existence. These were the only two trips made by Capt. Tobey to Wilkes-Barre, although when the boat was building he expected to be the captain permanently.
The fourth of July in 1835 was cele- brated at Owego with a military pa- rade, the usual exercises, and a dinner at the "bowery" of the old Owego hotel. That day the "Susquehanna" took an excursion party up the river six miles to Whitney's dam. The ex- eursion was liberally advertised and 25 cents were charged for the round trip. There were about 200 passen- gers on board, crowding her to her fullest capacity.
The bottom of the boat was so flat that when the pasengers congregated at one side she rocked over, thus tip- ping the boilers in a position that ren- dered the steam dangerous and the boiler liable to explode. The requests of Capt. Tobey's to so divide the crowd that about an equal number should be on each side of the boat to preserve its equilibrium were not heeded until he rushed on deck saying, "If you don't stop flocking on to one side l'Il blow you to the devil." After return- ing to Owego a second excursion was inade with a load of children.
The side wheels of the boat had been made smaller than the contract speci-
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lied. It was found on the first trip to Wilkes-Barre that they did not dip deep enough into the water. They were accordingly enlarged after the second trip down the river, and the wheel-houses were also enlarged to correspond. It was believed that the steamboat could be used as a tugboat to draw arks, but it could not be done. for the strain was so great that the rudder would not guide the boat.
In January, 1835, the company de- cided to build two tow boats and the work was placed in the hands of Capt. Tobey. These barges were thirty feet long and twelve feet wide and were built at Owego. They were intended for the transportation of coal up the river, and were constructed of planks secured together by half inch rods on a patent plan of Mr. Blanchard. The boats had no timber in them. When the planks shrunk, the nuts at the end of the rods were turned and the planks drawn tightly together. The barges were used but once, when they were loaded with coal at Lee's creek, a few rods below Nanticoke dam and nine miles below Wilkes-Barre. They were taken to Wilkes-Barre and left there.
While the steamboat was in opera- tion on the river a bill was introduced in the state legislature incorporating the company under the name of the Susquehanna Steam Navigation Com- pany. The bill became a law May 1. 1835. James Pumpelly and others were constituted a body corporate for the purpose of constructing one or more steamboats and navigating them on the Susquehanna river, for the pur- pose of transporting passengers and property and trading and dealing in mineral coal. The capital stock was
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fixed at $50,000, divided into shares of $10 each.
The company was managed by niue directors, one of whom was president of the board. The first board of di- rectors was composed of James Pum- pelly, Jonathan Platt, Amos Martin. Henry W. Camp, William A. Ely. Latham A. Burrows, George J. Pun- pelly, Thomas Farrington, and Har- mon Pumpelly. All persons interested in the boat already constructed were deemed stockholders to the amount of their subscriptions. The company was authorized to improve the naviga- tion of the Susquehanna river from Owego south to the Pennsylvania state line by the removal of all obstructions. natural and artificial, and the erection of wing and side dams. James Pum- pelly was elected president of the board.
In the fall of 1835 the water was not sufficiently high to run the boat and no trip was made down the river. In March, 1836, a third trip was made to Wilkes-Barre. Henry W. Camp was captain,having succeeded Capt. Tobey. Mr. Camp was captain of the boat du- ring the remainder of her existence. An empty barge was taken for the pur- pose of bringing up a boat load of coal. In returning, when about half way up the river, the forward connecting or main shaft broke. It was brought to Owego and repaired. Three or four days later the boat reached Owego with a boat load of coal in tow. This is believed to have been the first coal ever brought to this village.
The "Susquehanna" started April 18 on her fourth trip. The proprietors had determined to run her down the
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river for the purpose of selling her. At this time N. P. Willis, the poet, was living at "Glenmary" and writing his "Letters from Under a Bridge." which added much to his literary fame. He was invited to accompany others in the trip and dia so. The in- cidents of his journey were entertain- ly and graphically described in the fifteenth letter of the series.
About thirty-one miles below Owego the same shaft broke again in another place. The boat returned at once to Owego using her stern wheel. The boat was tied up at her landing at the docks, which were under the old wooden stores in Front street, and an entire new set of shafts was procured in New York at a cost of about $700.
In the fall of 1836 there was no high water for boating. A fifth trip was made, however, the boat leaving Owe- go Oct. 19 at 8:30 a. m. in charge of Capt. Camp. Returning a boat load of coal was brought up as far as Athens, where all was sold except two wagon loads, which were brought to Owego from that point by wagon. The river was too low to make another trip that season.
In the spring of 1837 the boat did nothing. She was forced ashore by the ice near the mouth of the Owego creek and was not got off and repaired until low water. In the fall of the same year a trip was made down the river. A crank got out of order and was repaired at Wilkes-Barre. She soon afterward got adrift in a freshet and floated four or five miles down the river and went ashore on one of the small islands opposite Plymouth. The man who had made the repairs at Wilkes-Barre attached the boat and
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sold her for his pay. She was struck off at auction for $60 to Augustus C. Laning, who subsequently used the en- gine for his foundry.
In July, 1835, Mr. Blanchard, by his attorney, John M. Parker, of Owego. began an action at law against the steamboat company in the supreme court to recover the sum of $5,000, the balance unpaid on his contract for building the boat with interest. Thomas Farrington defended the case. The defence was that the boat was not completed; that she was defective in materials and construction, and con- sequently worthless and unfit for the purposes for which she was built; that she drew twenty, instead of eighteen inches of water; that the wheels and wheel-houses had tobe made over; that the machinery was of inferior quality, and that the woodwork of the boat was of poor material.
The suit was tried at the City Hall in New York city before Ogden Ed- wards, circuit judge, on the first Mon- day in October, 1837. The jury gave a verdict of $5,240.31 for the plaintiff. This case was of such importance to the legal fraternity that it was re- ported in Wendell's Reports, Vol. 21. page 342.
The case was appealed and a new trial granted. It was again tried in New York in May, 1839, and the judg- ment of the previous court was at- firmed. Each of the stockholders sub- sequently paid $428.48, his proportion of the judgment obtained by Blanch- ard.
In May, 1835, Blanchard had as- signed his contract for building the steamboat to James Pumpelly as se- curity for the payment of $500. bor-
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rowed money. This also resulted in a suit at law, the particulars of which may be found by any one interested in Lalor's Supplement to Hill & Denio, page 198.
A representation of the "Susque- hanna" was engraved on the first of- ficial seal used by the village of Owe- go, which seal was made of brass by Sewall J. Leach in July, 1835.
The "Susquehanna" was the first and last boat built in Owego for com- mercial purposes. All the large boats built since have been for pleasure only. The steamboats built here since that time are as follows:
1839. The Lillie.
1857. The Picnic.
1873. The Owego.
1876. The Lyman Trumap.
1884. The Marshland.
1884. The Glenmary.
The construction of the second steamboat built in Owego was begun in 1838 and it was completed at a cost of $2,500 and launched in June, 1839 by John H. Lillie, an ingenious mechanic, concerning whom some ac- count has been already given in these papers. It was built on the bank of the river a little below where the Sus- quehanna was launched. It was built as a pleasure boat, but more especi- ally to test the qualities of a boller of Mr. Lillie's invention. The hull was thirty-five feet long. The cabin ac- commodated about fifty passengers. Gilbert Forsyth,a painter, took a small share in the investment and did the painting of the boat. The form of the boat was a compromise between that of a yawl and a flat-bottomed boat.
The boiler was an upright one of five or six-horse power and presented
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a great extent of fire surface. Fronf cold water sufficient steam could be generated to start the boat in about five minutes. Its form was a series of alternate circles of fire and water flues, and the fire flues were separa- ted near the top so that the firebox was built under only one-half of the boiler. The fire passed up on one side and down the other and then around the whole boiler up to the steani chamber. The water flues were only one inch thick and the fire flues two and one-half inches thick. This ar- rangement gave a strong fire on each side of the one-inch water flues, and it was a powerful heater. The boiler was made in Auburn state prison un- der Mr. Lillie's direction. The objec- tion to it was its large diameter, which rendered it a weak boiler. Similar boilers are used in many houses for generating steam for warming pur- poses.
The engine and machinery were manufactured at the foundry of Henry W. Camp at Owego in the fall of 1838. The boat was a side-wheeler and the engine was near the stern. There was an awning over the deck in front, and another deck in the rear, with seats. The "Lillie" was used as a pleasure boat during the summer of 1839, mak- ing trips six or eight miles up the river, and particularly around Big island. which was then sometimes known as Crater's island from Philip Crater living thereon, and now known as Hiawatha island. The boat proved to be a paying investment.
In the fall of 1839 Mr. Lillie and Mr. Forsyth, with their families started down the river with the boat for Cin-
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cinnati, Ohio, to which city they were about to remove. They had their household goods on board. The boat ran in safety until it reached what was known to raftsmen as Pompey's rift, about three miles above Wysox, Pa., where it was wrecked on a sunken log in the rift. The wreck was sold at auction by the owners, who proceded by the way of Hollidaysburg and Pittsburgh to their destination.
The next steamboat that made its appearance in Owego was called the "Enterprise." She was built at Bain- bridge, Chenango county, and came to Owego Nov. 17, 1851, on her way to Tunkhannock, Pa. She had been sold to a company there and her owners were on their way down the river to deliver her to the purchasers.
The third boat built in Owego was called the "Picnic." She was built in the spring of 1857 by Stephen Decatur Gibson, a sign and ornamental painter. who died here in 1860. She was con- structed in Sidney Calkins's ark yard, which was in the rear of the property now owned by Frank D. Philes, about a mile east of the court house.
In the fall of 1856 Mr. Gibson laid the bottom of his boat, which was flat and shaped very much like a common row boat. The bottom was built in the manner of an ark and turned over after one side was finished. Mr. Gib- son did the carpenter work himself, with a little assistance. When com- pleted the interior was exactly like that of an ordinary skiff, without any deck, and the cabin floor was laid on the bottom of the boat.
The "Picnic" was sixty feet long and twenty feet wide at its widest part.
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and drew fourteen or fifteen inches of water. An ice cream and lemonade counter was placed just forward of the shaft. There was a row of seats around the inside of the boat, which were furnished with cushions, taken from the Odd Fellows' hall. The wheel-house was a wooden frame, cov- ered with canvas. The boat was painted red.
In April, Mr. Gibson, with the assist- ance of some friends and neighbors. slid the boat off into the river. She was floated down and tied up near the foot of Church street, where an engine of about fifteen-horse power and a boiler, which had been used in Thomas Kyle's chair factory in Chest- nut street, were placed in the bottoni of the boat, back of the shaft.
The trial trip was made July 3. With a party of men on board she started from the foot of Paige street and with ninety pounds of steam made the trip to Big island and back, a dis- tance of about seven miles in an hour and a half. The trial trip having been successful, announcement was made that daily trips would be made at 4 and 7 o'clock p. m. during the rest of the season.
An event of some note in the his- tory of the "Picnic" was her trip to Towanda, Pa. She started from oppo- site the Ahwaga house in the morning of Aug. 13 with a party of about thirty prominent men on board and made the trip in six hours. Its coming to Towanda was unexpected, but a crowd soon gathered and the reception was an enthusiastic one. Speeches were made, and the party was escorted to the Ward house. The next day at noon
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a banquet was given by the Towanda people for the visitors at the Means house.
In the afternoon the "Picnic" made an excursion as far as Gibson's island. for the purpose of starting the visiting Owegoans on their return home. They were accompanied by several promi- nent Towanda men and a brass band. On the trip speeches were made ac- knowledging the attentions and hospi- talities paid to the excursionists by the people of Towanda. At Gibson island teams, which had been sent from Towanda, took the Owego men to Athens, whence they came to Wa- verly by stage. The steamboat re- mained at Towanda nearly two weeks. She was then towed back to Owego. reaching here Aug. 22.
The boat was run occasionally the next year. The fourth of July was celebrated in Owego in 1858 and at night she was anchored opposite Paige street and a display of fireworks was made from the boat. Later in the sea- son the boat was run up into the mouth of the Little Nanticoke creek and left there for the winter, and her engine and boiler were returned to the chair manufactory.
Spring came and the freshet of 1859 carried the ice down the river. When the water had fallen somewhat Capt. Gibson's son, Don Gibson, went up to tow the boat down the river to the village. She was logged with water which had accumulated during the winter, and was heavy. He succeeded in towing her safely down as far as his father's house, in the eastern part of the village, but when he attempted to snub the rope around a tree it broke and the "Picnic" floated, at first
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lazily and then rapidly down the stream. She struck on one of the piers of the Court street bridge, swung around, and quickly drifted out of sight. In due course of time she reached Nichols and running sideways on Wappasening bar, opposite the mouth of Wappasening creek, ground- ed. Her owner, who had gone down the river in pursuit, removed the shaft and everything else that was worth carrying off and then abandoned her to the natives, who speedily converted her into firewod.
No other attempt to construct a steamboat of any size was made until 1873, when the "Owego" was built.
The "Owego Steamboat Company" was organized in August 1873. The moving spirits in the project of build- ing a new pleasure steamboat were George A. King, Frederick K. Hull. George Truman, Jr., and a few others. The directors were Charles M. Hay- wood, George A. King, Joseph S. De- Witt, Oscar R. Stone, George Strat- ton, Eli W. Stone, and George Tru- man, Jr. Mr. Haywood was chosen president, E. W. Stone treasurer, and Mr. King secretary. The capital stock of the company was $2,500.
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