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The TillerA Publication of the Virginia Canals and Navigations SocietySpring 2007 Volume 28, Issue 1
30 Years of VC&NS
PresidentRobert M. “Buddy” HighGeneral DeliveryValentine, VA [email protected](434) 577-2427
Vice-PresidentDouglas MacLeodPO Box 3119Lynchburg, VA [email protected]
Recording SecretaryJean HighGeneral DeliveryValentine, VA [email protected](434) 577-2427
Corresponding SecretaryLynn Howlett6826 Rosemont Dr.McLean, VA [email protected]
TreasurerAtwill R. Melton1587 Larkin Mountain Rd.Amherst, VA [email protected]
Archivist/HistorianPhillip Eckman902 Park Ave.Colonial Heights, VA [email protected]
WebmasterGeorge Ramsey, [email protected]
VCNS SalesRichard Davis4066 Turnpike Rd.Lexington, VA [email protected]
JRBF Committee ChairmanRobert M. “Buddy” HighSee President
Watercraft OperationsWilliam E. Turnage6301 Old Wrexham Pl.Chesterfield, VA [email protected]
Board of TrusteesNatalie RossPO Box 8224Charlottesville, VA [email protected]: 2007-2012
Douglas MacLeodSee Vice-PresidentTerm: 2006-2011
William E. Trout, III, Ph.D.35 Towana Rd.Richmond, VA [email protected]: 2005-2010
William E. TurnageSee Watercraft OperationsTerm: 2004-2009
Richard DavisSee VCNS SalesTerm: 2003-2008
District Directors
Appomattox RiverNancy Trout35 Towana Rd.Richmond, VA [email protected]
Central James RiverDavid HaneyRR 1 Box 338Evington, VA [email protected]
Dan RiverBob Carter1141 Irvin Farm Rd.Reedsville, NC [email protected]
Eastern VirginiaKyle Schilling30 Brook Crest Ln.Stafford, VA 22554(434) 577-2427
Northern VirginiaMyles “Mike” R. Howlett6826 Rosemont Dr.McLean, VA [email protected]
RichmondVacant
Rivanna RiverPeter C. Runge119 Harvest Dr.Charlottesville, VA [email protected]
Southeast VirginiaGeorge Ramsey2827 Windjammer Rd.Suffolk, VA [email protected]
Staunton RiverRoy Barnard94 Batteau Rd.Alta Vista, VA [email protected]
Upper James RiverThomas M. KastnerCedar Hill1093 Forge Rd.Lexington, VA [email protected]
2 The Tiller
On the Cover:An unfinished painting by Georgia Barbour, manyof her unfinished works have been completed bylocal artists (See Page 9) and were on display atCafe Cubano in Charlottesville, VA throughout themonth of May.Photo Courtesy of Pastor Liz EmbreyOn the Back Cover:Dewey Wood on the Maple Run.
Table of Contents
4. Letter from VC&NS President and JRBF Chair,~~Robert M. “Buddy” High
5. In Memoriam, Dewey Wood~~Robert M. “Buddy” High
5. The Elizabeth River~~Amy W. Yarsinske
6. Happy Anniversary for VC&NS: 30 Years~~Minnie Lee McGehee
7. Where Are They Now?Mary Garner McGehee
8. A Dream Deferred:Ed and Georgia Barbour~~Ashley Egan
10. Sandra Day O’Connor~~Myles “Mike” R. Howlett
11. Canal Diggin’ Man John Henry~~William Trout, Ph.D.
14. The James R. Batteau or Tobacco Boat;An Authentic Replica for Virginia(Reprint with Addendum)~~William Trout, Ph.D
The Tiller 3
Virginia Canals andNavigations Society6826 Rosemont Dr.McLean, VA 22101
The Virginia Canals and Navigations Societyis a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
Membership Information:Dues apply to the calendar year and entitlemembers to all editions of The Tiller for thatcalendar year.
Membership Dues:Life Membership, Single $300.00Life Membership, Couple $400.00Single Individual $18.00Couple $20.00Sustaining Member $30.00Patron $65.00Non-profit Organization $18.00For-profit Organization $30.00Students, Schools, Libraries $8.00
VCNS PublicationsPublications Coordinator
Douglas [email protected]
The Tiller, Editor and Art DirectorAshley Egan
The SweepPeter C. Runge
Correction:In the last issue of the Tiller, NancyTrout not William Trout wrote the“Highlights of Spring Meeting in Pe-tersburg, Virginia” article.
4 The Tiller
The VC&NS President andJRBF ChairmanRobert M. “Buddy” High
This has been a busy winter and spring.Since I donated the Brunswick Belle Batteau (Forthe story see The Tiller, Winter 2006-2007, Volume27, Issue 4) to the Roanoke Canal Society, I hadto get busy building a new batteau for the 22ndannual James River Batteau Festival. We pickedup the lumber the latter part of January and wenow have the new Brunswick Belle soaking inLake Gaston. The swelling process should befinished in a few more days. I still have a lot ofcaulking to do before heading to Lynchburg.
We had our Annual VC&NS Meeting inPetersburg this past weekend with not as muchattendance from the members as I had hoped.Even with the small crowd I feel we didaccomplish a lot. In my report to the members Ireported that the finances were in good shape: wehave the Medallion at the Welcome Center inChesapeake lined up to be installed and we areexcited about making plans for having a retreat
next year. We had a wonderful fellowship andenjoyed our tour of the falls on the AppomattoxRiver at Petersburg and learned a lot about the plansby both Dominion Resources & Friends of LowerAppomattox River (FOLAR) for exciting newventures in the surrounding area.
Make your plans now to attend the JamesRiver Batteau Festival which will start inLynchburg, Virginia on Saturday June 16, 2007 andend on Saturday June 23, 2007 at Maiden’s Landingnear Richmond. We are planning for good food,good fellowship and good water levels. Please letme know if you have any questions.
Next year, I plan to dedicate my efforts toseek ways to encourage more membershipparticipation. If you have any ideas or suggestionsplease feel free to contact me. We have a goodmission and beautiful resources with all the riversand history, so let’s become involved and makeour Canal Society flourish.
“Buddy” High on Brunswick Belle, Photo by Seth Browder and Courtesy of Holt Messerly
The Tiller 5
The Elizabeth RiverI wanted to let all of you know that the Elizabeth River book,
nearly 400 pages in length and over 185 photographs, will be makingits appearance in late May.
So many folks have reminded me that such a substantivevolume on the river is much needed and a long time coming. Thebook is landmark in the depth of its content on the river—it is150,000-plus words—and there was amazingly no desire on the partof the publisher to cut anything, thus the river’s story is told in verycomplete form. I have attached the cover art/copy for you all to see.Please look for it in late May, but I wanted the Society to hear fromme and not a publicist that it was coming.
Best regards,Amy W. Yarsinske
I struggle to come up with the words to say what myheart feels today. I know I have lost such a goodfriend; but I am so privileged to have known Dewey.Our Batteau family will not be the same but we haveall been blessed with our wonderful memories. Thespirit of Dewey will live on in all the lives he hastouched. My prayers go out to all the heavy heartstoday and especially Sarah.~~Buddy High
In Memoriam
Above: Dewey Wood aboard the MapleRun in 2003.
Right: Dewey Wood and Buddy High at theAnnual Meeting in 2004.Photos by Holt Messerly
6 The Tiller
The Virginia Canals and NavigationsSociety was formed in 1977 when a group ofenthusiasts who love rivers and old canals andlocks and dams met in Richmond. Their statedaims for action mirrored their purpose, their goalsand their ambitions:
...to preserve and enhanceVirginia’s rich waterways heritage in all itsfascinating aspects. History, archaeology,local lore and legend, restoration,preservation, park and trail development—these are some of the many areas of interestour members pursue to their own greatsatisfaction and frequently to the lastingbenefit of their communities and to ourstate.THE TILLER, the Society’s publication,
begun in spring 1980 and edited by Russell H.Harding, has covered the activities of theorganization and has printed very significant,original, and interesting research done by themembers and other contributors. The publicationhas endured, holding the membership together andpromoting the aims of the Society, and has growninto a very presentable journal. We would like torecognize and thank the editors who have faithfullypoured their talents and time into this publication.The Society also circulates to the membership anewsletter called THE SWEEP that gives the newsand notices of activities and frees THE TILLERfor articles about activities, research, andcontributions of members and like-minded riverand canal people.
This first printing of THE TILLER, issuedin April, 1985. listed George W. Higgs, Jr.,President; William W. Parkinson, Vice-President;Mrs. Vivienne Mitchell, Treasurer; Nan Netherton,Historian/Archivist; the Trustees were James R.Ayers, Richard R. Fletcher, and Theodore M. Shad.Mrs. Mitchell held the mailing address.
From the beginning of the Society, theVirginia rivers and their tributaries wereacknowledged as districts and members wereappointed to be chairmen of those streams. Societymembers in the districts helped the chairs; and asa result great activities and achievements inconservation, public recognition of rivers andhistorical sites have been constantly reported andrecognized in THE TILLER and newspapers.
Annual meetings have been held in thesedistricts and this has added to public awareness ofthe treasures we have inherited along ourwaterways and the need to preserve the quality ofthe river watersheds. Many districts hold specialevents during the year to increase publicawareness; they also hold workdays when hands-on preservation efforts have improved the sites ofnavigation remains.
When Joe Ayers and people in Columbiabuilt the first replica of the James River batteaux,the Society helped them. This first batteaucompleted a trip to Richmond on Friday, June l,1984. The Navigation Society continued tosupport the building of authentic replicas of theold batteaux and the James River Batteau Festivalwas born and has continued to be a successfulannual activity. This annual week-long trip fromLynchburg to Maiden’s Adventure is enjoyed bythe batteaux crews, their friends, and the public.There have been as many as twenty batteauxparticipating in the Festival each June. Thecaptains of the batteaux have taken their heavycrafts to participate in special events on manyrivers in Virginia. Some years ago, the BatteauFestival became a recognized chapter of theSociety.
A Society activity that has done much toeducate the school children and the general publicabout the early navigations and the wonderful stonestructures that remain today has been the
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY FOR VC&NS:30 YEARS!~~Minnie Lee McGehee
The Tiller 7publication of Dr. W. E. Trout’s river atlases thatcontain histories of the rivers and maps thatdesignate interesting features on each river. Thefirst one Trout completed was THE JAMES RIVERBATTEAU FESTIVAL TRAIL ATLAS which hasbeen very popular and been reprinted many times.Several of the Atlases have been revised andreprinted as Trout continues his research.
Where AreThey Now?
Mary Garner McGeheeEditor’s Note: For the 30th Anniversary ofthe VC&NS we are revisiting some of thepeople that we have covered in the past.Mary Garner McGehee graced the backcover of the Winter Tiller (Volume 23, Is-sue 4). Mary Garner McGehee has juststarted the fifth grade, and is a straight-Ahonor roll student. She is also a buddingthespian, playing the role of the cricket inPinocchio and the gigling princess in thePrincess and the Pea, last year at CentralElementary School in Fluvanna County.She serves as an acolyte at First MethodistChurch in Charlottesville, Va. Obviously,her Grandmother, Minnie Lee McGeheeand parents Overton McGehee and TheresaCarroll are extremely proud of her.
Above: The back cover of the Winter Tiller.Below: Mary Garner McGehee.Right: Budding actress Mary Garner McGeheeon the first day of school, pictured with hersister, aspiring author, Eva McGehee.Photos Courtesy of Betty McGehee
8The Tiller
Ed and Georgia Barbour’s wedding on the river in 1996. Photo Courtesy of Ed Barbour
A Dream Deferred:Ed and Georgia Barbour ~~Ashley Egan
Editor’s Note:This started out as a “Where Are They Now” piece, Ed and Georgia Barbours’ weddingwas covered in the Winter 1996 issue (Volume 17, Issue 4) of The Tiller and Ed’s dreamof building gondolas was covered in the Winter 2003 issue (Volume 23, Issue 4). I mustthank Ed Barbour for sharing his wife’s remarkable story with me.
Ed Barbour may not be building hisgondolas, but one could argue that he is buildingsomething much better. Hope. He is currentlyworking for the State of Virginia CorrectionalSystem as a counselor, helping inmates as theytransition out of the penal system and into society.In his work he faces the most troubled segmentof society-- drug addicts, alcoholics and gangmembers -- and helps them to become productivemembers of society. One can surmise that therecent tragedy in his life has a bit to do with it:on June 8th 2006, his wife Georgia Barbour,committed suicide while in the Charlottesville
Correctional Jail. As he said, “She was a veryvibrant person who succumbed to this disease[alcoholism]… She just couldn’t turn it around…She was 55.”
Georgia Barbour’s life touched many peopleover many continents. She was a talented artist andteacher. After graduating from Randolph MaconWomen’s College in 1971, and before serving inthe Peace Corps she worked in a kibbutz in Israel.Later in the Peace Corps and on her way to Zaire toteach English and French, her DC-10 stopped torefuel in Uganda. After the plane took off, it wasescorted down by two Zaire Government jets. She,
The Tiller 9
“I never useddrugs. It doesn’t
bother me to face theghosts. I am not like
a lot of people...”~~Ed Barbour
along with 110 other people, was captured and heldfor four days by Idi Amin. She sneaked back ontothe plane, was taken off and pistol-whipped.Fortunately, after three days, the President of Zaire,Joseph Mobutu, was able to convince thegovernment that the hostages were not mercenariesbut peace-makers. She then went on to Lambaziand Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire, now theRepublic of Congo, where she received acclimationtraining. After her training, the Peace Corps senther to live in a Belgium monastery in Zaire inunexpected splendor. the household staff includedboth a cook and a gardener.
After she left the Peace Corps, shehitchhiked throughout West Africa. She traveledthrough the Sahara on a camel. She took a batteauup the Niger River to Timbuktu, where she mether first husband.
In 2000, Georgia took photos when theBarbours traveled to Viet Nam, and visited whereEd had traveled while serving in the military duringthe Viet Nam War. While some people might notbe able to make such a trip, Ed says “I never useddrugs. It doesn’t bother me to face the ghosts. Iam not like a lot of people. There are a lot of peoplewho won’t go back.” This past March, Ed and hisdaughters went back to Viet Nam to visit Georgia’s
daughter, Ashley Hiemenz, who is following in hermother’s footsteps and teaching English there.
Georgia’s other daughter, Jessica Hiemenz,went to Virginia Tech and majored inEnvironmental Planning and Policy; she iscurrently working for Fair Trade Coffee in Boston,MA. Ed’s daughters are also following the artist’spath. Erin Barbour is a percussionist with amaster’s degree in music from Indiana Universitywho plays in a municipal band and has her own
You can donate to Georgia’s Friends bychecking out their website:www.georgiasfriends.com.
A $25.00 donation can help feed awoman for one week. One of Georgia’s Painting that was finished by Joy
Meyer, which was part of the silent auction in May.Photo Courtesy of Pastor Liz Emery.
10 The Tillershow coming up. Blaire Barbour is finishing herlast semester in Art School.
Erin also serves on the board of the non-profit organization “Georgia’s Friends,” whichprovides help for women struggling withalcoholism and drug abuse. Inspired by Georgia’slife and death, it was started after she died.
On May 4th there was an Art Show andSilent Auction, at the Café Cubana on theDowntown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia, from5-8:00 pm. Local artists have finished Georgia’swork, which was on display throughout May.
Georgia once asked Ed why he married her.He told her that “she was adventurous, had a highenergy level, was good looking, and most of all
had a good heart.” Unsatisfied, she asked “whatabout intelligence?” And he told her that, “If shehad all that she had to be intelligent!”
These two intelligent and adventurousspirits were married aboard the “Edward Scott”batteau on November 9, 1996, at the horse shoebend of the James River. It was a cold winter dayand the groom wore traditional “batteau attire,”while the bride glowed in white. After theceremony, Gay Blunder and the Highland Dancersled them up the street to Café Bocci, for thereception.
Now, ten years later, Georgia is gone, buther legacy lives on through Ed, their children, andall the women helped by Georgia’s Friends.
Reminiscing on Justice SandraDay O’Connor~~Myles “Mike” R. Howlett
The recent commemoration ceremony forJustice O’Connor brought to mind her connectionwith VC&NS She was an honorary member. In1998, she was invited by the National Capitol Sectionof the American Society of Civil Engineers’Engineering and History Committee and the VC&NS to visit the canal. She is an avid student of theConstitution and very interested in the conditions thatled to its final drafting. (For more information, checkout Lynn Howlett’s book: The Patowmack Canal:From Canal to Constitution.)
Two weeks after an appendix operation, sheand a member of her staff came to Great Falls Parkfor a tour of the canal. She was dressed in a way toavoid recognition; she wanted to see the canal, nottalk to visitors.
We started at the wing dam and pointed outwhat remained of all of the sections of the canal andstructures that still remain along the canal route,ending at the overlook at Lock 5. After over twohours of a rather long, tiring trip, for a person justweeks after surgery, I suggested that sometime shemight like to return and go farther down to theoverlook where she could get a good look at the areaand parts of the canal. Her response was notsurprising for those who know her – “let’s do it now.”And we did.
Sandra Day O’Connor incognitoon the Potomac RiverPhoto courtesy of Lynn Howlett
The Tiller 11
The ballad about John Henry, the SteelDrivin’ man, became so popular, with so manyvariations, that it is almost impossible today toseparate fact from legend. Somewhere, a manwhose real name was or was not John Henry,drilled blasting holes for a railway tunnel with hishammer, won a drilling contest with a new-fangledsteam drill, and died, or didn’t, as a result. In hisbook STEEL DRIVIN’ MANJOHN HENRY: THEUNTOLD STORY OF ANAMERICAN LEGEND(Oxford U. Press, 2006), ScottNelson presents evidence thatJohn Henry was a real person,and that he was “on loan” to theC&O Railway Company fromthe Virginia State Penitentiaryin Richmond. One of the songsabout him mentions the “WhiteHouse,” which evidently was aname for the State Pen, and sureenough, Nelson discovered thatthere is a John Henry in thepenitentiary records, who wassent to work on the C&O in1868. You can see this recordfor yourself in the Library of Virginia: just ask for“Virginia Department of Corrections, StatePenitentiary, Prison Register No.1, 31 May 1863 -19 January 1869, Accession # 35178.” In it, onpage 118, is John William Henry, age 19, 5' 1-1/4", convicted of house breaking in Prince GeorgeCounty and given a two-year sentence. The entrysays “Received Nov 26th 1868 of BumkanWardwell Superintendent to Penty [penitentiary]the above named convicts twenty seven (27) innumber to work on Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.”At that time, just after the Civil War, the C&O wasbeing constructed over the Alleghany Mountains(Alleghany with an “a” is the Virginian spelling)from Virginia into West Virginia.
The legendary John Henry was probably areal person, and even if he wasn’t he deserves tobe celebrated as an icon representing the manyAfrican-Americans who worked and died to buildour country. The problem is, there is more legendthan fact about John Henry, thanks mainly to themany versions of the ballad written about him. Wehave a bit about John Henry in the NEW RIVER
ATLAS, on page 103, becausemany believe that John Henrydid his thing in Big Bend Tunnelalong the Greenbrier River atTalcott, West Virginia, wherethere is now a huge statue ofJohn Henry, a John Henry Parkunder development (with a trailplanned through the original,now abandoned tunnel), and anannual “John Henry Days.” AUS postage stamp with JohnHenry on it was unveiled duringthis festival in 1996, and there’seven a novel, JOHN HENRYDAYS, about the event.
No one can really prove thatthe John Henry of legend wasthere. Nelson thinks that he was
not at Big Bend, but at Lewis Tunnel, 50 miles eastup the line, where the records mention steamdrilling. But we know there were plans to ship bybatteau, two large stationary steam engines downthe Greenbrier to Big Bend Tunnel, probably forhauling spoil up the tunnel’s shafts, or for pumpingwater. Couldn’t one of the steam engine boilershave supplied steam for the trial of the steam drill?
Big Bend was dug in 1870-1872 and Lewisin 1870-1871, so John William Henry could havebeen there. (So could a prisoner named John HenryBell, sent to work on the railroad in 1868, but hewas marked “discharged” so he probably didn’t diethere.) Nelson says John William Henry was firstsent there in 1868 and disappeared from the
Canal Diggin’ Man John Henry~~William Trout, Ph.D.
Did You Know?According to
records, the JamesRiver and
Kanawha Canalhad it’s own John
Henry, GeorgeWashington and
Thomas Jefferson.
Statue of John Henry in West VirginiaPhoto by Ken Thomas, http://www.kenthomas.us/
12 The Tillerpenitentiary records after 1873 when he believeshis corpse was returned to the penitentiary forburial. Others are not so sure. For example, JohnGarst has very good evidence that the real JohnHenry (or another John Henry) did his thing atOak Mountain Tunnel on the Columbus &Western RY in Alabama, in 1887. You can readboth sides of the argument on www.ibiblio.org/john_henry.
To get an idea of the life of a prisonerworking in a railway tunnel in those days, tryreading John Ehle’s 1967 novel, THE ROAD. It’sabout a similar railway project on the Western
North Carolina Railroad being built over the BlueRidge Mountains to Asheville, through SwannanoaTunnel. No one has yet written a good novel aboutbuilding the C&O Railway over the Alleghanies. Or,for that matter, about the Kanawha Canal!
Of special interest to us was Scott Nelson’sdiscovery that the penitentiary records also listprisoners lent to the James River & KanawhaCompany to work on the canal at Maiden’sAdventure Dam in 1867-68. These records are allwe know now about this work, because the canalcompany’s annual reports were very short after theWar, mentioning nothing but the company’s finances.
The Tiller 13On page 141 of the Prison Register is a list of twelveprisoners dated March 30, 1868 and the affidavit“Received from the Superintendent of the VirginiaPenitentiary the above named Coloured ConvictsTwelve in Number, to be worked on the JamesRiver & Kanawha Canal and furnished at thespecial request of Charles J. Carrington Presidentof Said Canal by the general order of the Governorof Virginia, which said convicts are to be returnedhere whenever required by the Governor.” One ofthe twelve convicts was John Henry.
He was not the same John Henry whoworked on the railroad, but here‘s proof that thecanal had its own John Henry. This one wasdescribed as having a large tear on his right legoutside the knee joint. He was received by the Penon September 20, 1867, was 5’5” tall and age 21,and received a two-year term for house breaking.Other notables sent to work on the canal wereconvicts George Washington “alias Jno Neal,” andThomas Jefferson. This Jefferson was received bythe Pen on October 18, 1866, when he was 18, hada left little finger broken at the second joint, andwas in for a seven-year term for house-breakingand larceny. He was sent to work on the canal onJuly 1, 1868 and escaped later that month.
The Prison Register lists a great number ofescapes. I tried to make a table of what happenedto those sent to work on the canal. The records list128 convicts sent to the canal, in 1867 and 1868(138 were sent, but 10 are marked “returned [tothe Pen] and sent to the canal” so they were listedat least twice). Of these, 47 are marked “escaped”- so about a third of them escaped. Only four ofthese are marked “escaped & captured.” No fatewas noted for 33 convicts. Did they die, workingon the canal, or did the record keeper just not enteranything? Scott Nelson found a medical newspaperreporting a high death rate amongst convict canalworkers about that time. He also found an 1868state law requiring the return of either the convict,or $100, to encourage their recapture. So perhapssome of the convicts marked “returned” werereturned dead, to be buried in the mass graves whichwere excavated on the Penitentiary grounds a fewyears ago. Eighteen of the 128 canal workers aremarked just “returned.” But another 42 are marked
“returned & discharged,” “returned and sent to thecanal again,” “returned and still here,” “returnedto Penty sick,” “returned and sent to turnpike,” or“returned and pardoned,” so unless the authoritiesmade a horrible mistake, “returned” didn’tnecessarily mean “dead.” But there must have beendeaths even if the Prison Register didn’t say so.
What were the prisoners doing on the canalin 1867-68? From the few clues in the PrisonRegister, they were working at Maiden’s AdventureDam (near Goochland Court House), some of themon a steam dredge, under the eye of Capt. JamesW. Ezelle. Perhaps a flood had silted up the canalthere. The labor was probably supplied free of costto the canal company, but the company probablypaid to house, shackle and guard the convicts, andto try to chase them down when they escaped. ThePen sent their inmates some supplies: On October1, 1867 they sent four convicts to Maiden‘sAdventure Dam along with a suit of clothes andtwo blankets for each, and for the other convictsten pairs of pants, ten shirts, and three pairs of“brogues” (shoes). Someday someone will findout more about this work and Capt. Ezelle.
We know that this was not the first timethat prisoners worked on the canal. For example,back in 1858, they helped build the North RiverNavigation up to Lexington, along what is nowcalled the Maury River. Edward Lorraine, thecanal’s Chief Engineer, calculated that the valueof the prisoners’ work was only slightly higher thanthe cost to the company, because they had to beguarded, chained, housed in a secure building, andtracked down and caught every time they ran away.There is a bit of that on p.24 of THE MAURYRIVER ATLAS.
And here’s another thought: If, as planned(and actually approved by the US Congress), theJames River & Kanawha Canal had been built overthe Alleghany Mountains, where the C&O Railwayis now, then John Henry would have been drillinga canal tunnel, and his ballad would have begun:
When John Henry was quite a little ladHe sat on his mammy’s knee.
Said, “The Big Bend Tunnel on the JR&KWill be the death of me.”
14 The Tiller
In August of 1983, five batteaux and apacket boat were discovered in the James River &Kanawha Canal’s Great Basin at the foot of CapitolHill in Richmond. These had been buried undersilt and fill for over a century and were uncoveredduring excavation by Faison Corporation for anoffice building in CSX’s James Center. With thehelp of volunteers organized by the ArcheologicalSociety of Virginia and the Virginia Canals andNavigations Society, the boats were excavated,measured and photographed, then disassembledand stored underwater. They will be taken to theScience Museum of Virginia to soak for a year andmore in polyethylene glycol, a water logged-woodpreservative. Then they can be reassembled fordisplay and study. The excavation received bothlocal and national coverage and has created arenewed interest in Virginia’s Canal Era.
Before the Great Basin dig, no one nowliving had ever seen a James River batteau – alsoknown as the Tobacco or Market Boat. “Batteau”is French for “boat” so is a general term, but itprimarily referred to a relatively light, keelless, flat-bottomed craft pointed at both ends, steered by longsweeps and propelled by poles, oars, and (rarely)square sails. The late Eighteenth Century saw thepeak of the American batteau era, but in Virginiaand the South, where there were few towpathcanals, batteaux were the typical craft of the uplandrivers almost into this century, running the rapidsfrom the Appalachian Mountains east to tidewaterand west to the Ohio. In Virginia there still aresluices, wing dams, locks and canals from herbatteau era, scattered along more than a thousandmiles of upland rivers and streams. Whitewater
The James R. Batteau or Tobacco Boat;An Authentic Replica for Virginia~~William Trout, Ph.DReprinted from The Tiller, Volume 5 Issue 1, March 1984
canoeists now enjoy shooting the sluices built forbatteaux up to two centuries ago.
The James River Batteaux was like no otherAmerican batteau. Anthony Rucker of AmherstCounty invented it to replace the James River’sdouble canoes, which had been virtually wiped outby a destructive flood in 1771. Thomas Jeffersonwas present when the first James River Batteauwas launched, and he later helped secure a patent.The James River Batteau was developedspecifically to carry tobacco – the money crop (andin fact the money itself) of Colonial Virginia – inlarge hogsheads from upland plantations down tothe tobacco warehouses and the coastal markets.The batteaux were just wide enough to carry thehogsheads, which were rolled onto it from eitherend. The Patent Office burned down so we do notyet know the details of Rucker’s patent. But it wasno doubt general enough to cover variations on theoriginal theme, including the five batteaux foundthat August in the Great Basin.
The five batteaux recovered from the basinare basically similar but differ from each other indetail, probably reflecting both different boatyardsand different eras. One of them, which we call the“Bridge Boat,” is the smallest, about five feet wide,held together with wooden pegs. This had beenflattened out and turned over onto logs to form aroad bridge across a narrow gully in the bottom ofthe basin. It must have been an abandoned hulkbefore being used as a bridge, so it considerablypredates 1800, when water was first let into thebasin, inundating the bridge.
The other four batteaux are eight feet wideand forty or more feet long, built to the same
Editor’s Note: This article was originally printed in The Tiller in 1984. It empha-sizes how much we have learned and how far we have come in 23 years.
The Tiller 15general pattern. The oldest, probably built before1800, is the “Red Boat,” fastened together withrose-head nails (an early type) and painted red.The other had machine-cut nails, so are probablyfrom the early 1800s. These are the: “Hatch Boat,”with evidence of a decked platform at the stern;the “Hearth Boat,” with a stone and brick cookinghearth; and the “Coal Boat” still with a few inchesof coal in the bilges. None of the boats werecompletely intact, but elements of each can be usedto design an authentic replica.
These boats have added importancebecause they were not only early American inlandriver craft, but were also canal craft on the firstcanal system in the U.S., the James River Canal(later the JR&K), of which George Washingtonwas President. The American Canal Society hadreferred to them as “the most significant towpathcanal era archeological discovery to date. The boatremains found in the Great Basin in Richmondwill prove invaluable for study and understandingof the earliest canalboat development, constructionand useage in the new world.”
Before the discovery of the James Riverbatteaux, we could only guess at the details of theirconstruction. Now it has suddenly becomepossible to build an authentic replica, usingoriginal boats almost two centuries old as full-scalepatterns. Over a dozen replicas of canalboats have
been constructed in America, but no canal batteaux,even though they are smaller and less complex.There are quite a number of canal parks, especiallyin Virginia and the South, where a batteau wouldbe the appropriate craft to give visitors a genuinecanal experience. In and around Virginia theseinclude Great Falls Park and Harper’s Ferry (onGeorge Washington’s Potomac Navigation), thecanals in Fredericksburg, Petersburg andRichmond; the canal towns of Columbia,Scottsville, Lynchburg, Buchanan and Lexington;at the Roanoke Transportation Museum and theMariners Museum; and on the Staunton ScenicRiver and the New River. On the James Riversystem, the James River Batteau would beappropriate; elsewhere, every effort must be madeto determine the appropriate local type…
Everyone from the Reverend Robert Rose,Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and GeorgeWashington, down to the skilled and courageousboatmen, had a part in developing a navigationsystem especially designed to carry batteaux andtheir tobacco from the landlocked farmers down totidewater on the sea. Now we can build one ofthese batteaux and relearn the lost art of batteaupoling. In doing so we can generate a greaterappreciation of a forgotten part of our past, andencourage the creation of canal parks, trails andother space.
The project was a joint one betweenVC&NS and the Archaeological Society ofVirginia. The boats (mainly batteau bows, and onecanal freighter bow) were disassembled, labeled,and put underwater in the Byrd Park Pump House.They still need to be treated with a preservativeso they can be dried out without cracking andfalling apart, and reassembled again for study anddisplay.
Recently three things have happened:Late last year the Archeological Society of Virginiawas given a James River Plantation, Kittiewan,to use as its state headquarters, and ASV hasoffered us the use of a barn there to put the boatsin. Also, earlier this year the Pump House wastransferred from Richmond’s Utility Department
to the Parks Department, with the intention ofmaking it into a visitor center for Richmond’sJames River Park System. Pump House Park hastwo locks, three canals, and the grand entrancearch from George Washington’s time, so this willbe great for canals in Richmond. If the PumpHouse is developed as we expect, we will need tomove the boat parts out.
The third happening is that new treatmentsfor waterlogged wood have been developed, sincethe boats were put in the water in 1983-85. Thesenew treaments make it affordable now to treat ourseveral tons of wood.
If you want to get involved with this project,contact Bill Trout at [email protected] orBuddy High at [email protected]
Addendum
Photo by Holt Messerly
Dewey WoodJuly 28, 1955-May 23,2007