Afloat on the Ohio : An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo

by Thwaites, Reuben Gold

• ISBN13: 9780809322688
• ISBN10: 0809322684
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-04-01
• Publisher: Southern Illinois Univ Pr

Summary

Nineteenth-century American travel literature provides fascinating glimpses into the lives of ordinary people and into the history of the nation's settlement. Reuben Gold Thwaites's Afloat on the Ohio is a fine example of the genre, rich in Ohio River personalities, legends, and history as seen through Thwaites's eyes. His six-week journey by skiff covered a thousand miles from Redstone, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi. Thwaites's voyage echoes those taken by early explorers, pioneers, and settlers who opened up the West through river travel from the East.This edition is a reprinting of the original 1897 edition.

Author Biography

Reuben Gold Thwaites (1853-1913) was managing editor of the Wisconsin State Journal and secretary of the Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Table of Contents

On the Monongahela--The over-mountain path--Redstone Old Fort--The Youghiogheny--Braddock's defeat

First day on the Ohio--At Logstown

Shingis Old Town--The dynamiter--Yellow Creek

An industrial region--Steubenville--Mingo Bottom--In a steel mill--Indian character

House-boat life--Decadence of steamboat traffic--Wheeling, and Wheeling Creek

The Big Grave--Washington and Round Bottom--A lazy man's paradise--Captina Creek--George Rogers Clark at Fish Creek--Southern types

In Dixie--Oil and natural gas, at Witten's Bottom--The Long Reach--Photographing crackers--Visitors in camp

Life ashore and afloat--Marietta, "the Plymouth Rock of the West"--The Little Kanawha--The story of Blennerhassett's Island

Poor whites--First library in the West--An hour at Hockingport--A hermit fisher

Cliff-dwellers, on Long Bottom--Pomeroy Bend--Letart's Island, and Rapids--Game, in the early day--Rainy weather--In a "cracker" home

Battle of Point Pleasant--The story of Gallipolis--Rosebud -- Huntington -- The genesis of a houseboater

In a fog--The Big Sandy--Rainy weather--Operatic gypsies--An ancient tavern

The Scioto, and the Shawanese--A night at Rome--Limestone--Keels, flats, and boatmen of the olden time

Produce-boats--A dead town--On the Great Bend--Grant's birthplace--The Little Miami--The genesis of Cincinnati

The story of North Bend--The "shakes"--Driftwood--Rabbit hash--A side-trip to Big Bone Lick

New Switzerland -- An old-time river pilot -- Houseboat life on the lower reaches--A philosopher in rags--Wooded solitudes--Arrival at Louisville

Storied Louisville--Red Indians and white--A night on Sand Island--New Albany--Riverside hermits--The river falling--A deserted village--An ideal camp

Village life--A traveling photographer--On a country road--Studies in color--Again among colliers--In sweet content--A ferry romance

Fishermen's tales--Skiff nomenclature--Green River--Evansville--Henderson--Audubon and Rafinesque--Floating shops--The Wabash

Shawneetown--Farm-houses on stilts--Cave-in-Rock--Island nights

The Cumberland and the Tennessee--Stately solitudes--Old Fort Massac--Dead towns in Egypt--The last camp--Cairo

Historical outline of Ohio Valley settlement

Selected list of Journals of previous travelers down the Ohio

Index

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