May 7, 2021 By Keith Norrington
Built at Marietta, Ohio, in 1896, the first steam towboat Catharine Davis had a hull constructed of Oregon fir that was 135 feet long and 26.5 feet wide. The engines, built by the Marietta Manufacturing Company, had cylinders of 10 and 17.5 inches, with a stroke of six feet.
Owned by Capt. Steve Davis, of Marietta, the vessel was named for his mother. Capt. Davis did job towing and had also owned the towboats J.H. McConnell, Jim McConnell and John Mills. The boat arrived at Pittsburgh on its first trip on June 12, 1896.
The Davis was sold to the Smiley Towboat Company, of Catlettsburg, Ky., on March 15, 1901, and was used to tow timber out of the Big Sandy until the sternwheeler was purchased by the Island Creek Coal Company at Huntington, W.Va. The firm operated the vessel between Huntington and Cincinnati, rebuilding the boat in 1916. Capt. James Rose was an early master of the Davis
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Portrait (artist unknown) of James Howard, 1814-1876. (Courtesy of the Howard Steamboat Museum)
On October 14, 1876, James Howard was aboard the Louisville-Jeffersonville ferry John Shallcross. Headed home after a day of tending to business on the Kentucky side of the Ohio, James remained seated in his carriage during the crossing. Allegedly, the whistle of the ferry startled the horse, which backed the carriage forcefully against a gate that had not been properly latched, sending the buggy, horse and passenger into the river. Witnesses said that they saw Howard surface one time as he attempted to release the harness of the horse before sinking from sight.