Rufus Ward

The town in which I grew up was along the Tombigbee River. In fact my grandmother's property had only a gravel pit between her home and the old river course (before the Waterway came through). Since some ancestors resided in the area during the steamboat era, I wanted to read this book even though I feared the author would mostly treat the Alabama portion of the river. As I began reading, I realized his interests also laid in the northern portion of the river, specifically in the steamboats reaching Columbus and Aberdeen. He even mentioned a few reaching Cotton Gin Port, the forerunner of my hometown of Amory. Cotton Gin Port merchants moved businesses to Amory when the railroad arrived, creating a "ghost town" in the former location.

Until the railroads came through, steamboats were the main way cotton made its ways to the port of Mobile for trade. Because the water became too low during late spring through early fall, the upper river could only be navigated a few months of the year. Depending on the year, it could be four to seven months. The earliest steamers seemed to meet disaster quite often so most ships lived a short life. The process of loading the ships, which included slave labor as well as other hired hands, actually placed the slaves in more favorable positions because of their value to those selling the goods.

I found this an interesting piece of social history that will find a place in narratives of some of my Monroe County, Mississippi ancestors. The author used the Columbus and West Point Public Libraries and Mississippi State's special collections in his research as well as an Alabama museum. I cannot wonder how much he missed by not going to Evans Memorial Library in Aberdeen whose special collections were almost certain to include information as well as the Southern Historical Collection in Birmingham and the state archives in both Mississippi and Alabama. He did include writings of a couple of Monroe County historians whose papers are in the Aberdeen library.… (altro)