Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1908-07-03
EARLY NAVIGATION
How Steamer Passed up the
Maumee River.

(From the Sentinel, Jan. 8, 1SSi)
The story that a steamboat once
went up the Maumee past Waterville
Otsego and Gilead, seems to us of to
day like legend, based mostly OF
fiction. The Maumee of today with Its
naked projecting rocks, dams, rapids
and rifles and muddy water, is moi
the Maumee of so years ago. Once the
river and its banks on either side
were the highways of a vast com
merce between the lake and the Wa
bash country. u
Scows, pirogues and canoes, laden
ed with valuable stores, braved its
current from Fort Wayne to Perrys
burg. and in winter or low stages of
water, the carrying of stores, passeng.
| ers and merchandise gave employ
ment to a vast army of teamsters,
horses and wagons. The distance from
| Fort Wayne to Perrysburg, was 100
miles The round trip with team and
loaded wagon usually occupied 8 or
9 days, and various eXpedients were
resorted to by shippers to avoid this
slow and expensive way of shipping
goods, previous to the building of
the canal
The Steamer Sun.
1t was in the summer of 1887 then
an enterprising man, Capt. -
brought up a little canal boat built
steam craft, constructed at Roches-
ter, N. Y, and astonished the natives
along the river by the bold declara
tion that he was going up the mau
NEE or bust. After passing Fort
Meigs, Buttonwood Island and the
Presquile rifles, the little boats shrill
whistle loudly proclaimed her pres
ence at the lock i'll Nearing's dam
just below Miltonville.
The lock in the dam had been con-
structed on purpose to admit the pas
sage of boats. After much trouble
and the assistance of ropes and
tackle block, and much pulling and
putting, the Sun got into the mill
pond above the dam, where, on the
4th of July, 1887, she was employed
in giving the assembled people free
rides back and forth across the river.
When, finally she resumed her up
river course, she met trouble again
AZ Rush-te-boo rapids. A part of her
freight was taken off and hauled
around to Otsego by wagons. Joel
Foote, now of Washington township.
then a young man, assisted with his
fathers team in pulling the little
boat over the rapids. A rope and fall
block was carried off to the boat from
a tree at the shore and then horses
were hitched to the rope, and in this
way and with the assistance of men
on shore, the little craft ascended sue
cessively, Rush-to-boo rapids, Wolf
Rapids, and Bear Rapids at Otsego,
and finally landed in safety in deep
water above Gilead, where for a time
she piled between that point and Flat
Rock, below Defiance.
Funeral Incident.
AT Gilead later in the season, the
captain was taken sick with the Maui
NEE fever and died. There was so
much sickness that there were hardly
well ones enough to take care of the
sick and bury the dead. Daniel Bur
ton, now of Milton, and Capt. Alva
Gillett, who had on a line of hacks on
the mail route sent team to take the |
dead captain to the grave near John |
When the burial party |
the two men who had been |
sent forward to dig the grave, were |
the ague and the grave was not dug. |
Some of the men took the spades |
and went to work in the hard clay. It |
was very hot day and the mosqui- |
toes and flies were so bad that they |
nearly drove horses and men crazy |
Before the grave was completed some |
more of the men took the shakes, and |
Mrs James Donaldson, whose hus-
band was one of the party, carried |
water for the sick and for those at |
work at the grave, and it was with |
much difficulty that the burial was
inally made.
The little steamboat stood the Maui |
nee racket better than her master |
and after time ran down the river
lgain and piled between Perrysburg
and Vistula, now Toledo.
Another small boat called the
Crockett attempted the ascent of the
liver but never got above the Milton
Vile dam, and thus ended all at
empts at steam navigation on the
Maumee above Perrysburg.
The completion of the canal soon
lfter, solved the transportation troub-
9 and placed the lake town in easy
communication with the great Wa
,ash country in the interior, until the
ANAL in turn was superseded by the
The glory of the Maumee with its
,irogues, boatsmen and fur traders;
is Indian hunters and trappers with
heir canoes, peltries, pappoosses1 and
quaws, is thing of the past. Even
he sturgeon. muscalonge and ponder
us catfish Of other days is gone, and
he waters. of the old river, whose
anne is rich in Indian romance and
historic lore-on whose banks the
onor of our nations flag and the fate
E the northwest hung in the balance,
mid the clash of arms and roar of
annon, is now polluted and muddy
rom vast black alluyial deposits sent
n by the interminable Gordon and
et work of artificial water courses