Henry Miller Shreve

Henry Miller Shreve (October 21, 1785 – March 6, 1851) was the American inventor and steamboat captain who opened the Mississippi, Ohio, and Red rivers to steamboat navigation. Shreveport, Louisiana, is named in his honor.

Henry Miller Shreve
Captain Henry Miller Shreve
BornOctober 21, 1785
Mount Pleasant, Mansfield Twp., Burlington Co., New Jersey
DiedMarch 6, 1851 (aged 65)
Saint Louis, Missouri
NationalityAmerican
EducationHome schooled
OccupationEngineer
Spouse(s)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.[1] 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.

Early life

Shreve was born to Israel Shreve, a Quaker who had served with honor in the American Revolution,[2] and the former Mary Cokely at Mount Pleasant, the family homestead near Columbus 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.[3] After his father's death in 1799, Shreve served on several riverboats to help support his family. After purchasing his own boat Shreve began trading between Brownsville, Pennsylvania, where he resided, and ports as far away as New Orleans. On a voyage in 1814, Shreve's barge was registered at New Orleans on February 11.[4] After his boat was loaded 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.[5]

The Enterprise

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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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. The Enterprise departed Pittsburgh on December 21, 1814 with the munitions.[9] The Enterprise passed the Falls at Louisville on December 28, 1814.[10] The Enterprise arrived at New Orleans on January 9, 1815.[11]

After the American victory at the 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.[12] 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.[13][14] Then he navigated the Enterprise to Pittsburgh and finally to her homeport of Brownsville.[15] 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.

The Washington

Shreve and four partners commissioned George White to build a new steamboat, named the Washington, at Wheeling, Virginia (later West Virginia).[16] The engine and drive train of the Washington were built by Daniel French at Brownsville.[17] The Washington 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, 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.[18] On April 21, Judge Dominic C. Hall declared that the court did not have jurisdiction and hence dismissed all of the suits.[19] 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

The American rivers were still difficult to navigate, however, because of the presence of dead wood called snags, sawyers, or log jams. Shreve was appointed Superintendent of Western River Improvements in 1826 and charged with finding a solution to this problem. He had been working on a design for a "snagboat" since 1821, and he finally had it built in 1837. This craft, the Heliopolis, had a steam-powered windlass used to pull large concentrations of dead wood from the water. 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. Shreve successfully removed the Raft by 1839. The area of the Red River where the Raft was most concentrated is today his namesake city of Shreveport. Shreve helped to establish Shreveport via the Shreve Town Company.

In 1841, Shreve was relieved of his superintendent's duties by U.S. President John Tyler. He then retired to his farm near St. Louis.

Later life

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.

Notes
  1. Lloyd Hawthorne, "Captain Henry Miller Shreve: Master of the Red," North Louisiana History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Fall 1970), pp. 1-6
  2. In 1979, the historian William Y. Thompson wrote a biography of Israel Shreve, Israel Shreve: Revolutionary War Officer.
  3. Ellis, p. 710-711
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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."
  7. 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."
  8. 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."
  9. 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
  10. 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."
  11. 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."
  12. 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
  13. Western Courier, 1 June 1815: "Arrived in this port, in 25 days from New-Orleans, the Steam-Boat Enterprize, capt. SHRIEVE."
  14. 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."
  15. 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."
  16. Davis, p. 393
  17. Steubenville Western Herald, 10 November 1815
  18. Hunter, p. 17-20
  19. Maass, p. 56-57
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References
  • "Henry Miller Shreve", A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. II (1988), p. 741
  • Allen, Luther Prentice (1901),Genealogy and history of the Shreve family from 1641, Greenfield, Illinois: Privately printed, 672 pages; reprinted by Higginson Book Co., Salem, Massachusetts, 1999, ISBN 0-7404-1002-4
  • Captain Henry Miller Schreve. A Contribution by Judge Samuel Treat of St. Louis, Mo. (From the Democratic Review, February 1848)
  • Davis, Edwin Adams; Andreassen, John C. L. (1936). "Diary of William Newton Mercer". Journal of Southern History. 2 (3): 390–402. doi:10.2307/2191915. JSTOR 2191915. (Mercer's account of his voyage aboard the Washington in 1816.)
  • Ellis, Franklin (1882), History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Philadelphia: L. H. Everts and Company
  • Hunter, Louis C. (1949), Steamboats on the western rivers, an economic and technological history, Cambridge: Harvard University Press
  • Maass, Alfred R., "The right of unrestricted navigation on the Mississippi, 1812–1818", The American Neptune, 60: 49-59
  • Puneky, Claire (1970), Louisiana Leaders
  • Rand, Clayton (1953), Stars in their Eyes
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