Topic starter
13/11/2011 10:40 pm
My Pittsburgh family built flatboats in the late 1700's. I have been going over their cemetery records. I am trying to figure out who is who. I am wondering if anyone knows about the steamboat New Orleans built in Pittsburgh around 1813 by Robert Fulton.
I know Robert Fulton lived in Pittsburgh for a time. I also know one of my great aunts was married into the Captain James Rees and Sons family who built steamboats in Pittsburgh from 1840 to about 1933 or so.
Could there be a link between the Fulton and Rees families?
15/11/2011 4:22 am
Robert Fulton's descendents live in New Hampshire, along the seacoast area.
Topic starter
15/11/2011 1:47 pm
Robert Fulton's Farm in Pittsburgh
Maybe so but by the Heinz History center records, Robert Fulton owned a farm just south of Pittsburgh. His business partner was his brother-in-law Robert R Livingston. It also states Robert Fulton had a room at Versailles France when trying to design a submarine for France. He sent payments to his mother in Pittsburgh who lived on that farm.
Tom Adams;28068 wrote: Robert Fulton's descendents live in New Hampshire, along the seacoast area.
15/11/2011 6:34 pm
Daniel,
Fulton did not build the New Orleans but sent Nicholas Roosevelt to Pittsburgh to oversee construction of the boat. In 1815 Fulton died, so I'm not sure he would have had a connection to a shipbuilder in the 1840s.
Robert Gudmestad
Topic starter
15/11/2011 8:23 pm
Isaac Hammitt
It is without a doubt and there are lots of documents that state Robert Fulton owned a farm just north of Albert Gallatin's Frendship Hill in Pittsburgh. Then I have a document that the Rees family might have been involved in a court case with a Livingston family around 1830.
The book Who is Who on the Ohio states Robert Fulton as the builder of the New Orleans and Nicholas Roosevelt, the great uncle of Teddy Roosevelt as it's captain.
Then Judge Robert R Livingston was Robert Fulton's brother-in-law. This kind of leads to Catholic Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and Catholic Bishop Fulton J Sheen.
Hey, I am just going by Isaac Hammitts grave site in Pittsburgh.
Someone built that boat in Pittsburgh and they were not farmers. Although, they could be lawyers connected to Pittsburgh lawyer Edwin M Stanton and his wife Ellen Hutchison.
It was always said that Abraham Lincoln worked on a steamboat when he was a teen.
Robert Gudmestad;28087 wrote: Daniel,
Fulton did not build the New Orleans but sent Nicholas Roosevelt to Pittsburgh to oversee construction of the boat. In 1815 Fulton died, so I'm not sure he would have had a connection to a shipbuilder in the 1840s.Robert Gudmestad
15/11/2011 9:02 pm
I don't know if Fulton owned a farm near Pittsburgh, but I do know that he did not supervise construction of the New Orleans. That was Nicholas Roosevelt's job. Fulton was attending to his shipping affairs on the Hudson River when the New Orleans was constructed.
Topic starter
15/11/2011 11:01 pm
Albert Gallatin
So you are saying Nicholas Roosevelt actually supervised construction and did not just pick up the boat, that means he had to be living in Pittsburgh at least some period of time when the boat was being built.
I am trying to understand the people buried around Isaac Hammitt and Captain Daniel Pollard at Versailles Cemetery. For sure Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley was a relative of both Nicholas Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt and a very close friend of Cardinal John McCloskey.
It looks like some of the Fulton, Roosevelt and Livingston families were Catholic. It also looks like at least some of the families of Hammitt and Pollard were also Catholic.
I wonder if this was because of Robert Fulton's stay in Catholic France with Albert Gallatin?
I believe everyone buried up on this hill were involved with riverboats one way or the other.
Isaac Hammitt is buried very close to the Lewis and Clark lot and I believe this family was connected to Albert Gallatin and maybe Thomas Jefferson.
Robert Gudmestad;28095 wrote: I don't know if Fulton owned a farm near Pittsburgh, but I do know that he did not supervise construction of the New Orleans. That was Nicholas Roosevelt's job. Fulton was attending to his shipping affairs on the Hudson River when the New Orleans was constructed.