River Brought First People to Crittenden

Rivers and Paddle Wheeler From Yesteryear

The following recollection was told to Bob M. Wheeler by his father, Floyd Clark Wheeler as they went on boating trips on the Ohio when Mr. Wheeler was game warden for the county.

 

Before Navigational Dams 50 and 51 and the dikes on the Ohio were constructed, the current of the Ohio bounced off Battery Rock on the Illinois bank, then swung southwest to the Kentucky bank where the Tradewater added to its onward rush.

 

The residue from the two rivers formed a large earth and rock bar on the Illinois side opposite what was to become Weston. This bar extended down river in sandbars with the end being at the present Dam 50 site.

 

This bar forced the river into a narrow canal-like channel that hugged the Kentucky bank until the waters from Camp Creek merged with the Ohio. It then bounced off Cottonpatch Hill and slowly swung northwest to hug the Illinois bank past the Cave-In-Rock bluff. This formed a natural crossing place for larger grazing animals on there way to the Saline River Valley salt licks in southern Illinois.

 

Down from Cave In Rock was the formation of huge sand bars, which later became McKinley Island. The river then bounced off the Tower Rock out-jutting to slant southwest thru the narrow channel between the McKinley bars and the head bar of Hurricane Island. This passage was the one feared most by captains of mercantile flatboats. They would even hire local pilots at Cave In Rock to maneuver their boats through the rough passage.

 

At Hurricane Island, the Ohio struck the Kentucky bank a little above what is now called Hurricane Creek. The creek added more swift water to the river's flow. It was just below the mouth of Hurricane Creek that a Revolutionary War pensioner of Virginia, Robert Kirk, set up a flatboat dock on his land grant. The site was very near today's equipment transfer point from the Tolu Landing to Hurricane Island. It became knows as Kirksville and it was the only dock marked in what is now Crittenden County on the early Ohio River navigational charts.

 

Below Kirksville, the Ohio channel rushed down on the south side of Hurricane Island, (the opposite of today's flow which resulted by the constructional of navigational dams), and curved its way around the west tip of the island, before taking a northwestward turn to bounce off the Illinois side below Elizabethtown.

 

It would have been extremely difficult for the first pioneers of Crittenden County to land and dock these flatboats, which contained fragile household and farming equipment of the early years, without expert piloting. The supplying of the settlers who had pioneered what was to be Crittenden County was done overland, and soon became a profitable market to many advanced-type commercial flatboats. So enterprising pioneers like Robert Kirk and George Flynn at Weston took advantage of ownership of natural harbors to provide docks for this trade.

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After reading and learning about some of the early history of the the Ohio River let's recall some of the wonderful and nostalgic, steamboats that plied these rough and rowdy waters of long ago.

 

Of the early steamboat captains and boat owners, few names rated higher than the names of Judge Wiley Fowler's sons. Famous boats bore their names: the Joe Fowler, the Gus Fowler, and the Dick Fowler. 

 

The Joe Fowler was named for Captain Joseph Fowler and was the most popular packet on the river. She made regular trips with passengers and freight from Louisville to Pittsburgh and she was always in demand for Madri Gras season for the trip to New Orleans. The Joe Fowler was the fastest stern-wheeler on western waters. The shanty boat dwellers dreaded to see her coming, because she threatened their tiny boat-home that dotted the rivers for many years. Not only did the Joe Fowler carry passengers and mail, but she carried freight. 

 

Despite the fact that the Joe Fowler was a hard working boat, both she and the Dick Fowler were luxuriously furnished for passengers and live bands provided music for dancing each evening.

 

Another excursion boat owned by the Fowlers was the Idlewilde. Her river excursions were a popular event. Instrumental bands of the time were on board to provide entertainment and music for dancing on the Ohio. She made regular stops at all the landings along this area. 

 

In the early 1900's, Mr. W. B. Wilborn, the Fowler's agent at Fords Ferry, advertised summer excursion on the steamers Joe Fowler and John S. Hopkins. He wrote that one should take advantage of the extra low rates and enjoy the most pleasant trip offered on inland waters. Boats duly furnished and have all appointments. Orchestra on board. The fare, with berth and meals, from Fords Ferry to Paducah and return is $2.50 for the round trip, and from Fords Ferry to Evansville is $3.00 for the round trip. 

 

It is fascinating to think about the steamers stopping at all the landings along the Ohio that we are familiar with, from Weston, and Fords Ferry to Clementsburg, Cave-In-Rock, Tolu, Rosiclare, Carrsville, and E'town landings. What a bustling and wonderful sight it must have been. 

 

Many other excursion boats also operated on the rivers and the showboats announced their arrival to all the local towns with booming calliopes and she cruised down the river, the music bouncing off the hills at Weston and Cave In Rock and echoing down the river. 

 

The Delta Queen when she was docked at Cave-In-Rock in 2008.

(note: I was fortunate enough a few times, before the historic Delta Queen was docked for good in Oct. 2008, to hear the calliope as she docked at Cave-in-Rock landing and as she took off and resumed her trip down the river. It is something I will never forget, and makes you long to hear it once again and to see the great paddle wheel churning the river as she moved away.)

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Violent Storm Hits County, Tolu Hit Hardest

The Crittenden Press, June 10, 1993.

June 4, 1993 – Violent Storm Sweeps County.  Tolu Hit Hardest.

When the skies began to darken over Tolu Friday morning, June 4, some residents of that community, did not think it would be different from any other storm.

However, in less than an hour one small community was almost literally turned upside down.

A storm, packing up to 95 mph winds, hail, lightening and heavy rains, that moved across the entire Crittenden County area, stuck it’s heaviest blow in Tolu, according to Tolu Volunteer Fire Department Chief Tony Alexander.

Alexander said state officials he had talked with have no doubt that it was a tornado that ripped through the Tolu area leaving behind massive amounts of debris, downed trees and structure damage. Residents there were left without electricity, water and telephone services.

One home in the community belonging to Myra Hamilton, has been declared a total loss by insurance adjusters.

Judge John May declared a state of emergency Friday and Alexander and other set up a command post and shelter for all of the county’s storm victims at Tolu Elementary School.

The shelter was the source of food and restroom facilities for victims and workers and was used as temporary housing for some.

Alexander and others, who were working near the Tolu community when the storm hit, had to use chain saws to cut a path though the downed trees blocking the roads to get into the community to survey the damage and help storm victims.

Noble Wright, a Tolu resident, who was a home said after the storm quieted that there are three streets here, and it looked like every one of them was covered in 15 to 20 feet of trees.

In addition to Tolu, the nearby Hebron community was also hard-hit, according to Alexander. The storm swept through the area and downed numerous trees of all sizes.

200-Year-old Tree Fell Victim to Storm  

Gene Brazell, said he lost one of the most important symbols of stability in his life. His home was not damaged by the storm, neither he nor his family were injured, but he lost a piece of history that is irreplaceable – a 200-year-old Cherry Bark Oak Tree. The tree was located on Brazell’s farm which reaches to the bank of the Ohio River.

I can’t describe the feeling I have about the loss of that tree, Brazell said. He said part of his sadness comes from the fact that the tree was on his farm when the nation began. Brazell found the tree while he was tending cattle when he was 18 years old. He said he continually visited the tree, and it was a place for him to go and relax.

The Kentucky Forestry Division determined the age of the tree to be around 200-year-old, and said it was by far the largest of its kind in Kentucky.

 

Reign of Outlaws

 This interesting article is from an old book titled "The Ohio River" printed in 1906 by G.P. Puttnam's Sons, New York.  The Reign of Outlaw and Rowdy.  I love these early printings, for I feel the earlier they were printed the more truthful they are, as the stories haven't been recopied and added to during the years of being reprinted.

 The Reign of River Outlaws and the Early Pioneers on Shore

The pioneers who entered the Ohio Valley after its conquest from the aborigines found it to be a beautiful gem very much in the rough. Savage conditions did not prevail, it is true, so far as scalping and burning at the stake were typical of them, but it was many ears before life and property were safe from outlaws, and more before rowdies and rowdyism ceased to menace liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

Drifting about from place to place setting up claims for land that rightfully belonged to others, now and then, if the exigency of the case demanded, committing brutal murder, and at all ties brawling in grog-shops and pilfering along the rivers, the outlaws of the "Ohio Country" gained a national reputation. But it will be readily admitted that in this matter there has been a vast deal of exaggeration; there was but one Micajah Harpe, and but one Harpe's head raised on a pole; yet to read some pages one would believe there was a Harpes head on every tree in the West, and an uncouth murdered behind every bush that grew along the wild Ohio's bank of flowers. 

 

Every new county must needs suffer, it seems, from the pens of travelers who portray exceptional incidents so vividly as to make the exception seem the commonplace. And it is also true that local historians have been guilty of exaggeration of events in their own localities; many small affairs have assumed great proportions under the gentle breath of legend.

 

The lower Ohio River was very sparsely settled until a comparatively late date and in pioneer days this portion of the river was for a time a noted resort for bands of pirates from whose hands the descending flat-boatman did well to steer clear. 

Cave-in-Rock, on the Illinois shore near the present hamlet of that name, was a notorious rendezvous for a number of years. This is a cavern measuring about two hundred feet long and eighty feet wide; at its mouth it is eighty feet wide and twenty-five feet high. The floor was very smooth throughout and the walls arose in grades like seats in a theater. 

 

Strange hieroglyphics dating far back into prehistoric days covered the gloomy walls. The mystery of the place was enhanced by another room-like apartment over the cavern; the passage-way to this second cavern was like a huge chimney some fourteen feet long. Since about the time of the war of 1812, if not before, this grotto has born the name Cave-in-Rock; about it towers a rocky eminence into which the grueling hands of the floods have torn this aperture.

 

Early in the century a man named Wilson brought his family to this river stronghold and made it his home. More than that, he threw the home open to the passing public and mounted his hospitable sing, "Wilson's Liquor Vault and House of Entertainments," where not the passerby reads "St. Jacob's Oil"' if the proprietor's liquids were not a balm it was not because there were not broken heads to mend. 

 

For the idea gained for its originator all the returns that his ingenuity deserved; flatboats were continually passing down the river to Mississippi ports and a grog-shop (an alcoholic liquor, esp. run diluted with water) at the water's edge was a feature that at that day and that place could not fail to attract both the curious and the thirsty. 

 

As evil never fails to carry in it the seeds of its own undoing, so here the House of Entertainment soon gathered a plotting band of guerillas headed by none other than Wilson, the proprietor, which began a murderous confidence game that take rank in the West with the worst of outrages. 

 

The gang made its headquarters on nearby Hurricane Island and the plan of operations was fiendishly simple; richly laden, were inveigled to the cave, where in short order a crew from the island took charge of the boar and floated it to New Orleans; here the cargo and boat were sold and upon returning to Cave -in-Rock the proceeds were divided. Many circumstances combined to make this conspiracy safe and the conspirators wholly free from suspicion. 

 

The danger of the river travel on the Ohio and Mississippi was great, and so many boats were wrecked that the owners of any one of the captured boats could easily account for their loss of the score of dangerous navigation.

 

Then too, there were the dangers of the return overland trip from New Orleans in case the boat did reach its destination in safely; this journey through Tennessee and Kentucky, as will be shown, was perilous in the the extreme for those carrying money. Thus the desperadoes at Hurricane Island were not suspected for some time and it was longer still before the scattered population of the region took the matter into ins hands.

 

Wilson's band numbered nearly fifty; many of these escaped before the storm broke; a few were taken prisoners. A large price was set on Wilson's head and to obtain it, one of is own murderous gang killed him. "Not long after," writes so good as authority as Collins, "In the upper room of his mysterious cavern were found about sixty skeletons, which confirmed the take of systematic confidence, betrayal, and murder.

 

The reign of outlaw-ism in the area was of prolonged duration, attracting wide attention and gaining for the area a reputation as unique as it was unsavory. The river was the highway of travel and consequently social conditions here came under the eye of hosts of travelers, whose accounts had, after, a wide circulation. Frequently these accounts were told with literal truthfulness and yet, as they stand, are misrepresentations. 

 

The outlaw-ism was a natural product of the era of disputes over land and of grubbing (clearing of the land). It was a hard time to live or let live; the good old days are written and spoken of lightly but they must not be made to cover the first two generations of pioneer life. 

 

The life was exhausting; the forests were to be feled, the great logs rolled together and burned, and families reared and provided for, and usually the land to be paid for – with markets many miles away. All this had to be done under the most difficult climatic conditions, the fevers attacking the men at their work in the wet forests, especially along the river, with regularity and often with fatal effect.

 

When this home-building and land-clearing was accomplished, if one had a picture, it would reveal not only the changes that had been wrought, but a host of prematurely broken down men and women, besides and undue proportion resting peacefully in a family grave yard nearby. 

 

If one could attempt truly to chronicle merely the hardship ad suffering of a day when dentist and rubber boots were unknown, the result would be too painful to be interesting reading.