(Look Back with Bob Enoch - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Some Observation of a Correspondent Down the River.

PARKERSBURG, July 8 – I boarded the good steamer Harry D. Knox Saturday afternoon for a little trip down the Ohio. I put myself under the care of the genial Capt. Ritchie, who, by the way, is one of the most accommodating commanders on the river, and was soon made comfortable.

As we passed down the river the rich farms on either hand never looked better. Field after field of golden grain just cut, young corn, freshly plowed vineyards, loaded with their luscious fruit soon ready for the vintage, made a living panorama of beauty not soon forgotten.

Going down on the left, we passed old Blennerhassett, which looked like an emerald gem set in a broad band of rippling silver; on the right was the old cemetery of the pioneers, where lie the Putnams, Stones and Douglasses [lower Belpre], some of the graves being one hundred years old. Again passing the broad estate of Parker Lewis, the numerous Curtises, McMechan, Walker, Douglas, Stout and others, stopping here and there to put off passengers, who had been to the city shopping and trading. Only one inebriated passenger was aboard, and as he was put off, he took up his crooked path, showing us one of the evils of civilization, amid such a scene of beauty.

In conversation with the captain, he informed me that it was more than likely he would be indicted at this term of court for carrying more passengers than he ought to the Fourth of July. He had the contract for carrying the people to and from Blennerhassett Island. He wrote to the steamboat inspectors and received a permit to do so. He ran fourteen trips, and on an average did not carry more than he had a right to; but on two trips he thought he carried too many. He did his level best to accommodate the people on that day, and got the ferry boat to help him, but whenever the boat would land, the people would flock on, and it was impossible to do anything with them – on one occasion so many getting on the gang-plank as to break it. The captain did not eat a bite that day, so anxious was he to satisfy the people; and after it was all over he wrote the Inspectors telling them of the occurrence, and that he was willing to pay his fine, as he could not possibly do anything with the people. All who saw the event on the Fourth know that the captain is innocent of any intentional violation of the laws and after all he did for the people on that day it hardly seems fair that he should be indicted. As we passed the island the captain remarked that it was the last Fourth of July excursion he would ever tackle.

We landed at Belpre and took on a passenger that is deserving of mention. He is a young man about eighteen years old and has been attending a school for the blind at Colombus, O. He was on his way to Hockingport to visit his grandparents, where he formerly resided. When a mere baby he was afflicted with sore eyes, and a doctor applied violent mineral poison and in a twinkling his eyesight was gone out forever. He grew up in Hockingport and early learned where every house in the village was situated. His mother kept cows and every day he delivered milk as accurately as anyone. His method of determining houses was novel and original. As he would pass along he would continually “cluck,” “cluck.” When asked why he did this he said when he came to a house he could hear the echo. A person at the wharf would give him a package for anyone in the village and he would deliver it and never ask a question or make a mistake. His name was A.P. Hallett and at present lives in Belpre.

The Parkersburg Daily State Journal,

July 9, 1889

Concludes next week…

***

Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.