Captain W. W. Withenbury's 1838–1842 "Red River Reminiscences"

19. To Jonesboro

The Reminiscences  115 on July 19, 1809, and died on March 25, 1845, which is compatible with his absence from the 1850 census. 8. Steamboat building was not extensive in the South and usually involved hull construction and use of an engine from a wrecked boat because the requisite metal working skills and materials were lacking. 9. The Fulton shipyards were on the east side of Cincinnati near the river, with the first steamboat built in 1816. 10. The boat was described by the Shreveport Caddo Gazette, as quoted by the June 15, 1843, Clarksville Northern Standard: “A strange looking steam craft touched at our landing on yesterday morning. We do not know her name, as no marks nor brands were perceivable—she was built, we understand, up in Texas, and considering her place of birth, is not to be sneezed at. Though born in the backwoods, she has adopted the fashion peculiar to the white ladies of the present day—she carries a very broad stern.” 11. Sam Applegate had been a steamboat engineer (in charge of the boat’s machinery) and was then in a receiving, forwarding, and commission and dry goods and groceries business with Searing Marsh in the firm of Marsh & Applegate in Fulton, with the firm dissolved in September 1841 according to the November 3, 1841, Washington Telegraph. 12. The official name of this boat was the Red River Planter, which was advertised by Dyer at Berlin in the September 3, 1842, Clarksville Northern Standard, saying that she had the capacity to carry 600 bales of cotton. 13. Dyer published a Notice to Creditors in the March 2, 1844, Clarksville Northern Standard saying that he would file for bankruptcy at the end of the month. 14. A common name for the Civil War. 19  To Jonesboro • As this letter began, the Relief was still at Berlin, and Withenbury recounted the story of a load of salt that the Relief had left at Berlin on her last trip up in 1841. The Relief then proceeded to Pecan Point in northeast Red River 116  Red River Reminiscences County, Texas; Roland in northeast Red River County; and Jonesboro in northwest Red River County. Pecan Point1 was located on the north side of the mouth of Pecan Bayou. It had been a keelboat landing and was a steamboat landing of moderate importance, restricted in its capacity for expansion by Roland a short distance upstream . The name referred to the landing and to the adjacent plantation and was derived from a large pecan grove at the mouth of the bayou that pre-existed settlement. Until old Miller County Arkansas was dissolved in 1825, the term was used to refer to settlement on both sides of the river, which began in 1816. The plantation lands were acquired by Jacob Black in 1825 and sold to Robert Hamilton in 1835. Roland2 was located in the headright of Roland T. Bryarly. It had been a keelboat landing and (along with Fulton and Wright’s Landing) was among the most important landings on the Upper Red River. It was an import and export point for Clarksville (14 miles to the southwest), but also a regional collecting point for cotton and a regional distribution point for up-freights; and half of its trade, as Withenbury indicates, was with the Choctaw Nation. It was located on the inside of a bend that was cut off from the river in 1875 after Withenbury was writing and was replaced by Mound City.  The Reminiscences  117 W hile the Relief was lying at Mill Creek (Berlin), Captain Ross bethought himself of this favorable opportunity to look up some of his last season’s patrons, who, when he last saw them, were slightly in arrears; and as some few of the founders of Berlin who, in the beginning, were supposed to be reliable and “come to stay,” were nowhere to be found at this time, “Uncle Joe” wisely took time to make a general settlement, which consumed all that remained of daylight, and we were consequently quartered here for the night; for in those early times there was but little night-work3 done by steamboats on upper Red River. It seemed that last year the Relief had on her last trip up about 150 sacks of salt on speculation, 4 fifty of which Capt. Ross had left at Berlin to be disposed of to the people as their...