Topic starter
07/04/2010 6:20 pm
I recently purchased a mid-19th C. mirror with a reverse painting of a steamboat on the top section. The name painted on the boat is "OHIO" and I am trying to find out more about this steamboat.
Some of the paint on the steamboat is chipped, but fortunately not where the steamboat's name is..it clearly says "Ohio". The mirror's frame is a typical early to mid-19th C. design - a rectangle with turned wood half-spindles on all four sides and square block corners. It is divided with a reverse painted image (the steamboat) on the top section and a mirror in the bottom section. The wood frame is beautifully faux-painted with the original painted birds-eye maple design and is in fairly good shape.
I could only find a reference (on the internet) to a law suit between Alfred Stunt and the Steamboat "Ohio", recorded in Hamilton County Ohio, dated April 1855.
If anyone has any information on or about the steamboat "Ohio" they will share with me, I would very much appreciate it.
07/04/2010 8:21 pm
Donna,
There were several boats named OHIO, but as I look at Way's Packet Directory, it appears to me that the only one that fits your dates is the OHIO (Way 4272). This boat was a sternwheeler (paddlewheel on the stern, or back, rather than a sidewheeler with big semi-circular wheelhouses), and was built in 1849 at Cincinnati. At 348 tons, it was a small boat. She ran in the St. Louis-New Orleans trade, Capt. J.L. Black 1851. This boat was in a collision with the W.B. CLIFTON near Columbus, KY on the Lower Mississippi on April 2, 1854. The CLIFTON sank in this accident. The OHIO was off the lists by 1857.
Judging by the dates, this very likely could be your boat, since a collision with loss of life would certainly precipitate a lawsuit.
I am only deducing this from Way's Packet Directory -- others on this board are far more knowledgeable than I on stuff like this.
Topic starter
09/04/2010 4:28 pm
Bob,
Thanks for your reply and the information you gave. I do not believe that the "Ohio" you mention is the "Ohio" I am looking for. The 'Ohio" I am looking for could be earlier. I only mentioned the 1855 lawsuit between a steamboat named "Ohio" and Stunt, because that's all that came up on a google search for "steamboat "Ohio".
The steamboat in the painting on my mirror is definately a sidewheeler. Also, the mirror's 'style' is more c.1810-1830s(?) rather than 1850s.
Was there a steamboat named "Ohio" that was earlier than the one you mentioned?
09/04/2010 6:15 pm
Donna, the boat I had mentioned before still COULD be your boat. Capt. Way states that there is some confusion about the original OHIO, also listed as being built in 1849 in Shousetown, PA. There is another, this one a sidewheeler, that he states was built in Cincinnati in 1849, sometimes confused with the original. I also made a bit of a mistake in my first reading of the listing, not realizing the second OHIO was a sidewheeler (Way abbreviates the terms). So, the one I previously mentioned could be your boat, and the dates do fit as to the lawsuit. Since the boat was built in Cincinnati, the owners may very well have lived there, making that the venue for the suit.
There is only one other OHIO built early enough to be your boat, that one built in 1855, and it is a sternwheeler. This boat ran the Ohio River exclusively.
Again, others may have more info., but that's all I have at my fingertips. Hope this helps!
10/04/2010 12:22 am
From what I have seen in my research, OHIO was one of the most popular steamboat names, along with SWAN (I have read that there were 5 SWAN's in operation at more or less the same time in the 1850s) and BLACK HAWK. It may prove difficult to pin down a specific boat that was represented on your mirror. Unfortunately, the boat on the mirror may be a composite or artist's conception rather than a specific craft. If you can pin down the dates or provinance on the mirror it might help. Good luck in your search!
Topic starter
12/04/2010 2:16 am
Thanks Hank & Bob, for the information. You may be right in that the painting 'may' be a generic steamship with the name "Ohio" on it. I shall be happy with what info I have for the time being. If someone comes up with more, that would be great. I love the mirror (especially the faux birds-eye maple paint) and knowing even a 'little' about the steamboat on it is a plus. Thanks again.