Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-03-27
The First Steamboat.

Recent discussion through the columns
of the Boston Journal seems to have defn-
itely established the fact that it was our
own Connecticut river, and not the Hud-
son, as generally supposed, that witnessed
the first successful attempt 10 apply steam
power to navigation ; and it further appears
that the precise point where the original
trial trip was made was between the towns
of Oxford on the New Hampshire side and
Fairlee on the Vermont side. The name
of the inventor and builder of the first
practical steamboat which made this trip,
and which has been developed aud i'm
proved upon till the result is seen in the
steamboat and steamship Of the present
day, was Capt. Samuel Morey, who at the
the time of making his novel experiment
was resident of Oxford, n. H., but who
afterward moved TO Fairlec, this State,
whore he spent the closing years of his life,
and where he died. a New Hampshire
correspondent of the Journal, writing up
on this subject, says:-
81 remember, when boy, Of hearing
the old settlers of Oxford tell about Capt.
Samuel MUrey's steamboat and how ii run
upon Connecticut river. Capt. Morey was
a man of remarkable inventive genius, and
among other strange things he told The
good people Of the town that some day he
should take ride up the river in a steam
boat! They, of course, were iaithless and
only laughed at his project. But he perse-
vered and constructed the first steamb boat,
probably, that ever rode upon river or sea.
1t was a crude affair for u steamboat, but
it proved successful. Capt. MOrey made
his first experiment, or trial trip, ON Sun
day, during the hours OF religions service
when the people were all at church. He
chose this time so that nobody should see
him in case Of failure. The people went 10
meeting in those days, On a quiet Sum
day, not far either way from 1890, this no.
table man, with his Jude craft, steamed up
the river between Fairlee and Oxford en-
tirely alone, and on the following morn
ing announced to the astonShed people his
wonderful triumph Honor to whom hon
or is duel Soon after this, Fulton consult
ed with Morey, and so did others, and ere
long steamboat was launched upon the
Hudson, and steamboat navigation, one of
the modern wonders, became n practical
fact"
Another correspondent says:
"The most reliable account of Morey's
experiments and claim 10 having made the
first application of steam to navigation, aud
the first practical steamboat was made
and published nearly twenty years ago by
the Rev. Cyrus Mann. Rev. Mr. Mann
was son of the original settler and found
er of Oxford; he died in 1859, at the age of
seventy-three years his eldest brother,
Major John Mann, Jr., was the first white
male child born in that town, and many
years previous to his death was the nearest
neighbor of the writer, who has often heard
him relate the story Of Capt. Morey's first
experience in steamboat navigation Mr..
Mann was an educated man, and of the
- taNA s.aN Il 10,
spent considerable time and research in the
Investigation of the respective claims of
Fulton, Morey and others 10 the credit and
honor Of practical success in steam navi-
CATION. The following is an extract from
his account of 1t, above mentioned:
The credit of the original invention of
the steamboat is commonly awarded TO
Robert Fulton, but 1t is believed that it be-
longs primarily and chiefly to far more
obscure individual. So far as is known,
the first steamboat ever seen on the waters
of America was invented by Captain Sam
uel Morey OF Oxford, N. II. The astonish-
ing sight of this man ascending the Con-
neclieut River, between that place and
Fairlee, in little boat Just large enough to
contain himself and the rude machinery
connected with the steam boilers aud u
handful of wood for fire, was witnessed
by the writer in his boyhoOd and by others
who yet survive. This was AS early as 1893,
or earlier, and before Fulton's name had
been men toned in connection with steam
navigation
Mr.. Mann, further on in this article re-
fers to visits made by Fulton to Morey at
Oxford during the period of his expert
ments, and that Fulton and many others
who were investigating the same subject
did visit Capt. Morey at that time, can be
shown beyond question. Robert Fulton
may have been the first man TO bridge over
the, gulf between experimental ventures
ana positive useful achievements in steam
navigation. but he can by no means be re-
garded as the originator of the idea or the
inventor of the mechanism of it, Fulton
accomplished no more than many others
until 1907, long before which successful ex-
periments like that of Capt. Morey's had
been made in very many Places"