Kimberly Ann Barrett, age 62, passed on from this world Sunday, August 20th, at her home in Columbus, Ohio. She was born to Dororthy Woodruff Barrett and Charle
February 15, 2021 By Keith Norrington
The Eagle Packet Company of St. Louis contracted in 1913 with the Howard Shipyard to build a wood-hulled sternwheeler for $26,000.
The new steamboat, 242 by 37.8 feet and named Peoria, was not completed at Jeffersonville; it was moved by the towboat Dorothy Barrett to Paducah and then to St. Louis, where the vessel received its final outfitting. Four new boilers were placed aboard, along with the recycled engines (22-inch cylinders with a 7-1/2-foot stroke) from the towboat Ed Roberts, considered by rivermen to be one of the best “coal pushers” between Pittsburgh and Louisville.
The trial trip of the vessel was made on October 14, 1914, with Capt. W.H. Thorwegan, former owner of the famed Grand Republic and other steamboats, in command. The trial run proceeded upriver to Alton, Ill., where the riverboat was put through its paces in front of the home of the Leyhe family, own