Ohio River Archives - Appalachian History

‘My name is Mike Fink!’ was the curt reply

He was the most famous of the keelboatmen, who plied the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for two decades until displaced by steamboats.

The jonboats and skiffs evolved from the Whitehall’s, dories, and other varieties brought westward from the eastern seaboard.

My grandfather, James Amlin, was postmaster at Ironton in wartime. A big fire below the railroad on 2nd destroyed the Register office.

Excerpt from 1949 letter by Capt. Tom Greene, Greene Line Steamers owner, to his friend Dan Heekin, a Cincinnati industrialist & river buff.

John Holt (1870-1918), a coal miner in Murray City, OH, kept a journal of his daily life. Here’s the week of April 7-14, 1907.