End of an era for steam boats on the Coosa Still Got Cotton in My Blood
The political fight in Alabama was over. The locks to make the Coosa navigable were being built. By the end of the 1880’s three locks were finished, and another under construction. This added another 25 miles of navigable waterway below Greensport, but things were happening — mainly railroads, which could keep a schedule, and could take the goods where they need to go. Water couldn’t always do either.
Rome was the primary steamboat builder. Some were built in Gadsden and Resaca. But Rome had the railroad line that could bring in the heavy machinery that was needed on the boats. This put a lot of people to work; it helped the railroads, and the scores of workmen used to construct the boats. It was quite an enterprise, and added greatly to the local economy. No wonder the Rome newspapers wrote on everything that happened in the industry.
Everything the steamboat did affected the town’s economy, and the local paper would report it
“The Magnolia came up Thursday (3 January 1877) with 367 bales of cotton, the river is in good boating order, Long may she float!...’Last Friday the S.P. MIKE RAGLAND OUR TOWN COLUMNIST
Smith was hung on Horseleg shoals. The Magnolia below, and the Etowah Bill above, neither could pass, work is needed on Horseleg Shoals.…’The ice is gone from the river, (Jan 9, 1879) steamboats will resume their regular schedule.
The captain of the boats were treated as rock stars and when one was sick, or indisposed, you might see.. “Captain Coulter is improving, as soon as he is able he will take the Etowah Bill up to Carters landing, Col. Carter has a full load of freight waiting.”
Or they may write, “On the 25th of February 1874… The beautiful new Steamer ‘Mary Carter’ just built at Resaca steamed into Rome. Several hundred citizens just made it to the dock in time to see her land. She moved like a thing of life, and proudly as a queen. She is 111 feet long, with an 18 foot beam and can carry 100 tons of freight. She has four little cabins, four staterooms, and a kitchen. She is named after Col. Sam Carter’s daughter Mary, who was one of the passengers.”
A quick note about Mary, she married Benjamin Harvey Hill, Jr. a prominent Atlanta lawyer and future judge. Her father in law was U.S. Sen. Benjamin Harvey Hill Sr. Her mother was a Colquitt, and was the sister of Confederate Gen. Alfred Colquitt, who later became governor and another senator from Georgia.
Mary caught a cold in May of 1890. It turned into pneumonia and took her life rather quickly. She was 36 years old, and left no children. Her funeral was preached by former Confederate Gen. Clement Evans, a friend of the family. She is buried in Atlanta’s famed Oakland Cemetery, and has a beautiful marker.
The steamboats could die rather quickly also. In 1876, the Mary Carter hit a snag near Garrett’s Ferry in Centre, and sank with 88 bales of cotton and freight. She also had a mail contract that was kept intact. Three years later, the Etowah Bill hit the same snag, headed for the Centre wharf, but sank before getting there. This was a calamity for Rome’s river traffic. It was in September and the Bill was one of a few that could navigate in shallow water.
The Willie C. Wagnon (one of the last) was built in 1898 in Gadsden, and made its maiden voyage to Rome in November of that year.
There was still a good market for lumber and timber to be transported by boat.
The Cherokee Three was the last commercial freight-carrying steamboat on the Coosa. She sank while tied to the wharf in Gadsden in 1922.
The Annie M. was renamed the Leota, and converted to a dredge boat. Tied to the wharf, she was used in Gadsden as a Tea Room, a social club and as a USO canteen during WWII. She had no engines, and was unkempt, her planks rotting. On Mother’s Day 1945, she peacefully gave up and sank.
The Coosa River Steamboat Era was officially over . ... May they never be forgotten, nor the people and the lives they touched.