Henry Miller Shreve

Henry Miller Shreve (October 21, 1785 – March 6, 1851) was an American inventor and steamboat captain who removed obstructions to navigation of the Mississippi, Ohio and Red rivers. Shreveport, Louisiana was named in his honor.[2]

Henry Miller Shreve
Captain Henry Miller Shreve
BornOctober 21, 1785
Mount Pleasant, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedMarch 6, 1851 (aged 65)
St. Louis, Missouri,[1] U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationHome schooled
OccupationEngineer
Spouses
  • Mary Blair
  • Lydia Rogers
ChildrenHarriet Louise (b. 1811)
Rebecca Ann (b. 1813)
Hampden Zane (b. 1815)
Mary
Parent(s)Israel Shreve
Mary Cokely
Engineering career
ProjectsCleared the Great Raft
Significant designSteamboat Washington
Steamboat Heliopolis

Shreve was also instrumental in breaking the Fulton-Livingston monopoly on steamboat traffic on the lower Mississippi. He was the first riverboat captain to travel the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and back, as well as the first to bring a keelboat from the Ohio River up the Mississippi to the Fever River in Illinois.[3] Shreve also made significant improvements to the steamboat and the steam engine, such as separate boilers to power side paddlewheels independently, horizontal cylinders, and multiple decks to allow for passengers and entertainment.[2]

Early life

Shreve was born October 21, 1785,[2][1] to Israel Shreve, a Quaker farmer who had served as a colonel in the American Revolution,[2][4] and the former Mary Cokely[2] at Mount Pleasant (Burlington County, New Jersey), the family homestead near Columbus, New Jersey in Mansfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey. On July 7, 1788, the Shreves left New Jersey for their new home on property owned by George Washington in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

Young Henry's new home was close to the Youghiogheny River near the present day borough of Perryopolis.[5][1] After his father's death in 1802, Shreve served on several riverboats to help support his family.[6]

Career

In 1807, Shreve was a captain and built a barge of 35 tons, at Brownsville, Pennsylvania on the Monongahela River. He manned with a crew of ten men for a voyage to St. Louis, which he reached in December of that year. After purchasing a cargo of furs, he returned to Pittsburgh and forwarded them to Philadelphia. He continued this trade for three years with considerable profit, as each voyage was on his own account.[7]: 628 

In 1810, Shreve decided to open a new line of business, lead trade. On 2 May, he left in a new barge of 35 tons manned by 12 men and made the trip from St. Louis to where Galena, Illinois was later built, in 14 days. He remained until July 1 busily employed in traffic with the natives, buying 60 tons of lead. He was therefore compelled to build a flat boat, and buy a Mackinaw boat, to transport his return cargo. His flotilla reached St Louis in 12 days, the beginning of the American lead trade on the Upper Mississippi. He took his cargo to New Orleans and then shipped it to Philadelphia, earning upwards of $11,000. In 1847 that trade equalled in value about $3,000,000 annually, estimating only the shipments from Fever River. In 1810, there were less than 10 small settlements between Louisville and the mouth of the Ohio River and about the same number between the latter and Vicksburg. Shreve never repeated the trip to Galena, as his success induced others to send 6 barges to Galena. Upon his return to Brownsville that year he built a barge of 95 ton capacity, and began regular voyages between Pittsburgh and New Orleans for the next 4 years.[7]: 629 

For example, on February 11, 1814, Shreve's barge was registered at New Orleans .[8] After loading his boat with cargo, Shreve and crew hauled and poled the vessel 2,200 miles (3,500 km) against strong river currents, probably reaching Brownsville before July 1814.[9]

Commanding the Enterprise, December 1814-January 1815

A group of Brownsville investors had formed a stock company, the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company, to conduct steamboat commerce on the Western rivers.[10] To this end, the company commissioned a new steamboat to be constructed at Brownsville. During the winter and spring of 1814, while Shreve was on the voyage to New Orleans, the Enterprise, with an engine and power train designed and built by Daniel French, was constructed. Between June and December 1814, the Enterprise, under the command of Israel Gregg, made two successful voyages transporting passengers and cargo to ports between Brownsville and Louisville, Kentucky.[11] By December, the company had decided to send the Enterprise to New Orleans with a cargo of munitions for General Andrew Jackson's troops to defend the city against an invasion by British forces.[12]

Command of the Enterprise was transferred to Henry Shreve because of his firsthand knowledge of the hazards to navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. On December 21, 1814, the Enterprise departed Pittsburgh with the munitions,[13] passed the Falls at Louisville on December 28, 1814[14] and arrived at New Orleans on January 9, 1815, one day after the Battle of New Orleans.[15]

After the American victory on the January 8, 1815 Battle of New Orleans, a lawsuit was brought by the heirs of Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston against Shreve and the owners of the Enterprise for violating the formers' monopoly against any unauthorized navigation of Louisiana waters by steamboat.[16]

In May 1815, soon after being released from jail, Shreve commanded the Enterprise from New Orleans to Louisville, the first time a northbound steamboat was able to reach that city.[17][18] Then he navigated the Enterprise to Pittsburgh and finally to her homeport of Brownsville.[19][7]: 633  This long and difficult voyage by the Enterprise, more than 2,200 miles (3,500 km) against the currents of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, demonstrated the ability of steamboats to navigate the western rivers.[2]

The Washington, 1816

Shreve and four partners commissioned George White to build a new steamboat, named the Washington, at Wheeling, Virginia (later West Virginia).[20] The engine and drive train of the Washington were built by Daniel French at Brownsville.[21] and it was first launched in 1816. It was the first steamboat with two decks, the predecessor of the showboats of later years. The main deck was used for the boiler, and the upper deck was reserved for passengers..

Shreve, for the second time, piloted a steamboat to New Orleans where he once again was sued by the heirs of the Fulton-Livingston monopoly. Shreve took the Washington from New Orleans to Louisville and returned to the Crescent City on March 12, 1817. Shreve and several counterparts were subjected to lawsuits initiated by the monopolists. On March 25, 1817 Shreve departed New Orleans and piloted the Washington upriver. He reached Louisville in twenty-five days, equal to the record set by the Enterprise nearly two years earlier.[22]

On April 21, 1817 Judge Dominic C. Hall declared that the court did not have jurisdiction and hence dismissed all of the suits.[23] This decision eliminated any enforcement of the Livingston-Fulton monopoly in Louisiana courts. Hall's decision and the Washington's recent voyage from New Orleans to Louisville heralded the forthcoming steamboat era on the western rivers..

Clearing the Great Raft, 1832-1839

The American rivers were still difficult to navigate, however, because of the presence of dead wood called snags, sawyers, or log jams.[6][1]

On December 1, 1826, Shreve was appointed "Superintendent of Western River Improvements" and charged with finding a solution to this problem.[1][24] He had been working on a design for a "snagboat" since 1821, "and the first twin steam snag-boat, the Heliopolis, was commenced...and completed in August, 1829, upon the plans and specifications and under the supervision and direction of Captain Shreve."[25] The Heliopolis had a steam-powered windlass used to pull large concentrations of dead wood from the water.[2]

On the 25th August, 1829, Captain Shreve reported to the Engineer Department that he had made experiments in removing snags "at Plumb Point (the most dangerous place on the Mississippi River)...with the steam snag-boat Heliopolis, and that he had succeeded beyond his most sanguine expectations."[25]

As a result of the success of his design, Shreve was ordered in 1832 by Secretary of War Lewis Cass to clear the Great Raft, 150 miles (240 km) of dead wood on the Red River.[2] Shreve successfully removed the Raft by 1839.[1][2][26] The area of the Red River where the Raft was most concentrated is today his namesake city of Shreveport[1][6]

The subject was responsible for shortening the course of rivers by cutting channels through the river bends which had the unfortunate result of creating shallows at the entrances of the Atchafalaya, Red, and Ouachita rivers.[27][28]

Later life
Portrait of Shreve at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium

Shreve was twice married. There were three children from his first marriage to the former Mary M. Blair on February 28, 1811, and two children from his union with the former Lydia Rogers of Boston. Shreve spent his final years with his daughter Rebecca's family in St. Louis. He died in the home of his son-in-law, Walker Randolph Carter, and is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis..

References
  1. "Henry Miller Shreve," in They Made America, [Public Broadcasting System|PBS], retrieved August 20, 2023
  2. "Inductees," National Rivers Hall of Fame, The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, retrieved August 21, 2023
  3. Lloyd Hawthorne, "Captain Henry Miller Shreve: Master of the Red," North Louisiana History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Fall 1970), pp. 1-6
  4. William Y. Thompson Israel Shreve: Revolutionary War Officer, 1979.
  5. Ellis, p. 710-711
  6. Haven, Janet: "Henry Miller Shreve," in Inland Navigation: Connecting the New Republic, 1790-1840, American Studies dept., University of Virginia, retrieved August 20, 2023
  7. Allen, L. P. (Luther Prentice) (1901). The genealogy and history of the Shreve family from 1641;. Greenfield, Ill., Priv. print.
  8. New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112-2044, New Orleans Wharf Register: One barge, its captain recorded as Henry Shrive, was registered at New Orleans on February 11, 1814.
  9. The date is based on two facts: the 2,200-mile return trip reportedly took about four months to complete, and Hampden Zane Shreve, his son, was born on April 8, 1815.
  10. American Telegraph (Brownsville, Pa.), 5 July 1815: "Last Saturday evening the Steam was first tried on the Despatch, another steam boat, lately built in Bridgeport, and owned as well as the Enterprize, by the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company. We are happy to learn that she is likely to answer the most sanguine expectations of the ingenious Mr. French, the engineer, on whose plan she is constructed."
  11. Pittsburgh Gazette, 10 June 1814: "The Elegant Steam Boat, Enterprize, Captain Israel GREGG, arrived here on Wednesday last, from Bridgeport, on the Monongahela,... She is handsomely fitted up for passengers for Louisville, Falls of Ohio, for which place she will sail on Saturday or Sunday morning next."
  12. American Telegraph, 14 December 1814: "The Steam Boat Enterprise of this place, which has been trading since last June in the Ohio, arrived here last Sunday afternoon. We understand that she performed the voyage from Steubenville to Pittsburgh, with a full cargo, in about three days; she made the passage from Pittsburgh to Brownsville, a distance of 65 miles [105 km], in about 17 hours. When the strength of the current is taken into consideration, it will be seen that she is equal to any boat in use. She will return to Pittsburgh in a few days, whence she will take freight and passengers, for New Orleans."
  13. Major Abraham Edwards to Secretary Monroe, 11 February 1815: "Report of the departure of boats, loaded with munitions of war, from this place [Pittsburgh] to Baton-Rouge and New Orleans and the names of persons in charge of the stores." National Archives DNA-RG 107, E-1815, microfilm 222, reel 15
  14. Western Courier (Louisville, Ky.), 4 January 1815: "Passed the Falls on the 28th ult. the Steam Boat Enterprise, loaded with public property, consisting of 24 pounders, carriages, shells, small arms &c. for Gen. Jackson's army."
  15. American Telegraph, 29 March 1815: "The Enterprize has been employed in the public service for some time. She arrived at New Orleans on the 9th of January, one day after the battle, laden with amunitions [sic] of war, and it appears from the following extract of a letter from one of the officers on board, that she has given entire satisfaction, she exceeds in speed any other vessel that has yet floated in those rivers, she is a vessel of 50 tons burthen."
  16. Duncan, Abner L., 22 January 1816, "Answer to the petition of John Livingston including the name of each shareholder and the company which owned the steamboat Enterprise", Calendar of the Mississippi Set, Le Beouf Collection, New York Historical Society
  17. Western Courier, 1 June 1815: "Arrived in this port, in 25 days from New-Orleans, the Steam-Boat Enterprize, capt. SHRIEVE."
  18. Hunter (1949) p. 17: "The Washington, however, was not the first steamboat to ascend the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Louisville. As most writers point out, she was preceded in this feat by the Enterprise, the Brownsville boat with machinery designed and built by Daniel French."
  19. American Telegraph, 5 July 1815: "Arrived at this port on Monday last, the Steam Boat Enterprize, Shreve, of Bridgeport, from New Orleans, in ballast, having discharged her cargo at Pittsburg. She is the first steam boat that ever made the voyage to the Mouth of the Mississippi and back."
  20. Davis, p. 393
  21. Steubenville Western Herald, 10 November 1815
  22. Hunter, p. 17-20
  23. Maass, p. 56-57
  24. Harris, Isham G. "S. Rept. 46-399 - In the Senate of the United States. March 24, 1880. -- Ordered to be printed. Mr. Harris, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the following report. (To accompany Bill S. 814.) The Committee on Claims, to which was referred the Bill (S. 814) for the relief of Henry M. Shreve, having carefully examined the same, submits the following report ." GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  25. Harris, p. 2
  26. Harris, p. 3-4
  27. William Franklin Switzler. United States Department of the Treasury Bureau of Statistics. (1888). Report on the internal commerce of the United States part II of Commerce and navigation, special report on the commerce of the Mississippi, Ohio, and other rivers, and of the bridges which cross them Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office. p. 198.
  28. Stephen Adolphus Caldwell. (1935). A Banking History of Louisiana. Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press. p. 35.

Further reading

See also
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