The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-02-19
STRANGE RIVER ROMANCE
HOW TUE COMING OF THE STEAMBOAT TO THE OHIO LED To
A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY.
(Pittsburgh Gazette-Times.)

pittsburgh Gazette-Times.)
The fight due to jealousy over Peg
gy on that trip down the Ohio 1911,
when the first river steamer raced
Mike Fink, last of the keelboatmen,
in Sandusky; the girls strange pun
ishment: the startling murder of Car
penter. and. well-all the rest Of the
strange story. was told me by an old
river man not long ago when the half
rotted timbers OF a barge which had
laid for IS years in the mud on the
beach Of the Monongahela above its
junction with the Ohio, we're carried
down stream by high water.
In telling the story. I won't leave
out anything Of Importance that the
old captain said. but 1 can't repeat
his exact language. and. anyway,
some Of 1t wouldn't look very we'll in
print.
Fink and Carpenter would amuse
themselves when the boat was floating
down the river. by wantonly shooting
at pigs and other animals along the
shore. Once Fink shot the tails off
three pigs at q long distance without
otherwise injuring the animals. At
negro. who was standing on the bank
watching the boatload Of flour float
by.
The fellows head VAS too big; he
couldn't wear a genteel boot" was
Fink's careless reply when the less
reckless Talbot told him that he
might cause trouble for the white
crew if he played such tricks too
often.
Fink was such a good marksman
that he was barred from the Shoot
fr~ 1@St1ck1 s~SI->I So 80 -..--
men when laying over at Pittsburgh.
or when tied I'm on down-river trips
at local landings while waiting for
freight. AS a bribe to keep Fink out
of these contests. where his accurate
shooting would always win him the
entire beef. the usual prize, he was
gladly given the fifth quarter" the
hide and tallow. This he would ex-
change for whisky at the trading
post. Then there would be a celebra-
ton ending in a fight, in which Fink
Fink and Carpenter. as a trial of skill
with the rifle, would shoot glasses of
whisky from each others heads at a
distance of 60 yards.
Fink and Carpenter had spent most
of their lives on the river, and were
as illiterate as two men could we'll
be. Their leadership was maintained
solely through brute strength and
ready reckless use Of their guns.
Talbot, however, the third of the
trio, was a man Of somewhat differ
ent character. He was considerably
younger and had been following the
river only about 10 years. He never
took part in the shooting contests
though some Of the river men told
marvellous stories of how. when hunt.
ing he had shot with the rife birds
circling $50 feet directly overhead. Te
was not a bully. yet in several fights In
which he had become involved 70,
various reasons he had been so. well
active, that afterward If he had
wanted a scrap he would have to &c
out of his way to have found it.
|. There was no mystery about Tai
had reason to doubt for a moment
his WI story. that he had simply
come west because he liked life in
the woods and on the frontier river
He was on intimate terms with Fink
and Carpenter. it Is true, but these
men were no worse than many other
river men of the time; only holder
and more reckless, and therefore
greater DULLES.
Early in the fall Of 1911 Fink had
RATED a quantity of flour down Char.
SACAo SACCNS u JlIIIS upstream,
preparatory to loading it on a larger
barge to be foated and poled to New
Orleans. Mike expected. Of course,
that Carpenter and Talbot. as we'll az
the cook. a rawboned Irish woman,
who for five years had been his COM
mon-law wife, would as usual form
part Of his keelboat crew.
Talbot. however. had been persuad-
ed to ship as mate with Nicholas
Roosevelt. part owner and captain OF
the first river steamer, the New Or.
leans. Just being completed in the
Sukes Run shipyard on the, banks OF
the Monongahela, above where II
flows into the Ohio. Though Fulton's
steamers had been plying for some
time on the Hudson. the rivermen
about Fl. Pitt were skeptical of the
new method of navigation and re-
garded 1t with open disfavor. Talbot.
therefore. had accepted Mr.. Roose-
velt's offer only after considerable
hesitation. A trip on the new steam
er was just the kind Of an adventure
tnat appealed to Talbot. but he hateo
to desert his old friends. especially
Fink. who would be the loser both in
ture OF steam navigation was success
full.
Fink wouldn't have minded Tai
bots desertion much. however, II his
cook had not also shipped on the new
steamer. 1t was not only difficult
to SIMPLY her place, for cooks were
scarce on the frontier. especially wo-
men cooks. but. to say the least, Fink
felt personally affronted that the wo-
maj should voluntarily lava