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The Exploding of the Moselle was one of the worst ever steamboat disasters.
on April 25, 1832. You can read the full story, here.
The wrecked hull of the Moselle was found when they excavated the piers for the L&N RR Bridge, built in 1872.
Harlan Hubbard's painting of Dead Timber Road
| An 1892 controversy arose as to whether Ross or Melbourne might be the better place to live. A letter from Smith's Station, a location unknown to us, suggests that neither one can claim the title. | The Grandview Cemetery, near Mentor, was established in 1880. | |
| Beallmont was an early estate upriver from Newport, and further described here. The entire journal is about Newport's William K. Beall, and his service in the War of 1812. | ||
| “A ferry boat plying the Ohio river between New Richmond, O., and California, Ky., while crowded with passengers was stove in by the ice today and in danger of sinking. The passengers were panic stricken and begged the captain to go to shore. The boat, however, was caught in the ice and drifted two miles before it could be brought to the shore. It was found that the huge ice floe that crushed the boat’s sides had acted as a raft to float the vessel.” Indianapolis Journal, February 3, 1904 | ||
| California was incorporated as a city on February 7, 1874. | The news from California, Ky. in 1878 is here. | Mrs. John D. Ellis' Sketch of the Old Christian Church at California is here. (pdf) |
| Remember when the A. J. Jolly High School students went on strike? Here. | Read about “excitement and lawlessness in California” in 1859 here. | The first graduating class of California High School. |
| A fight, on the steeple of the Christian Church in California. | ||
A charity/rescue boat stops at California in the Food of 1884
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Steamboat Lancaster disaster, 1855 near
Steptoe, here.
(Steptoe is near the present
day Mentor)
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| The Ohio River from Ball Heights, California |
History of the Flagg Spring Baptist Church.
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The Methodist Episcopal Church, in California, in the 1937 Flood |
To Some Ladies of California, Ky. by T. M. Barton, 1885 |
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| Locking thru #35. Steamer is the Greenwood. More pics of her at this site. |
Near Lock and Dam #35, in the 1948 Flood from a Facebook post by Maggie Gosney |
Lock and Dam #35 was about a mile below New Richmond, Ohio, and was one of 9 earlier
locks and dams replaced by Markland and Meldahl. Details here.
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| Lock and Dam #35 Thanks to Travis Brown and Karl Lietzenmayer for these |
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| In the 1937 Flood from a Facebook post by Maggie Gosney |
Showing Flood Levels | Aerial |
Dam #35, near Oneonta
Oneonta is an Indian word, but the town of Oneonta is named after Oneonta, New York , [Wikipedia] birthplace of Henry E. Huntington [Wikipedia], nephew and successor to railroad magnate Colis P. Huntington [Wikipedia]. Colis and his brother owned a successful business in Oneonta, NY, and Henry E. was born there. |
New Richmond Wharf Boat
New Richmond men bring the Lott Boys to Kentucky to do their dirty deeds.
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The C&O Railroad ran a ferry between New Richmond and Kentucky because of the amount of traffic - people and freight - the railroad could derive from the Ohio side of the river prior to good roads being available.
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The New Richmond had C&O Railroad access by this ferry to the
Kentucky side. On the
Kentucky shore, it would be about where New Richmond/Carthage Road hits Rt. 8.
Capt. John B. Prudent ran the ferry.
| “Cincinnati, Feb. 2--A ferryboat plying between New Richmond, O., and California, Ky., while crowded with passengers was stove in by the ice today and a panic ensued. Before the boat cold be run ashore it had drifted two miles down the river. The huge ice floe that crushed the boat's sides acted as a raft to float the vessel.” Los Angeles Herald, February 3, 1904 |
An earlier ferry at this location was authorized as early as 1830.
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| Carthage Road - New Richmond Ferry |
New Richmond Ferry | New Richmond from Campbell County |
A. J. Jolly
list of names here.
June 18, 1976 was the last day of operation for post office at Mentor. 41060 would be no more.
Mentor, 1953. Key to the images.
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| Aerial View of Mentor, circa 1910
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Mentor Baptist Church
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The birthplace of Civil War General and US President Ulysses S. Grant is across the Ohio River from Mentor, in Point Pleasant, Ohio |
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| The Mentor area was established in the early 1800's, and was then
known as Belmont. Why it changed to Mentor - about the time the railroad came thru - is not known. |
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The Chicago Packer, October 25, 1913
| Remember the Kaiser aluminum plant that was built in Mentor? |
| “Mentor, Ky., with a population of 100, has 40 musicians, an average of two to every home.” The Routt County (Colorado) Sentinel, June 25, 1926 |
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| Twelve Mile First Baptist Church, in flood |
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| Map of California, 1883 list of businesses in California in 1883, here. |
Odd Fellow Grove, 1880's somewhere in Campbell County |
| “Settled in the early 1800's as a river town, court records mention the town of
California as early as 1849, but state records indicate it was incorporated in [February 7] 1874.” Jim Reis, in the Kentucky Post, May 9, 1993 |
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| “Mrs. Julia Arthur, who was appointed principal of the California (Ky) school, has resigned.” from The Freeman, A National Colored Newspaper, August 23, 1890 |
Pomeroy Packet Lines by-pass the California wharf boat, story here. | “Mrs. Eliza Darough dies at her house in California, Ky., last week, aged 94. She was a nurse in the family of the Grants, and took care of General Grant for two years after his birth.” from Maysville's Daily Public Ledger, December 6, 1894 |
The showboat Princess, at an unknown location
| “The Princess was immensely popular all along the rivers. Every seat of her three hundred was usually sold long before curtain time. At such a landing as California, Kentucky, one of her favorite stops, the citizens were in the habit of declaring a holiday as soon as she tied up, which culminated in the show that night. Some seat suited everybody's purse, for “shelf” tickets (balcony) sold for thirty-five cents, the first ten rows on the main floor for seventy-five, and the seats in the rear, fifty cents. Unlike most of the showboats of the time, the Princess stopped twice each season at each of her ports of call.” from Philip Graham's 1951 Showboats: The History of an American Institution |
More pictures of the showboat Princess are at this site.
| “Henry E. Pritchard, a mate
on the steamer Telegraph, who was tried at the January term
of the Campbell Criminal Court on the charge of killing a colored
roustabout with an axe on the steamer when opposite California, Ky.,
over two years ago, and was found not guilty on the ground of
insanity, and several weeks ago sent to the Insane Asylum at
Anchorage, has been discharged from the institution as cured.” from Maysville's Daily Public Ledger, April 15, 1892 |
| “The Bintz Site” is a Fort Ancient era archaeological site that was excavated as part of the building of the Mary Ingles highway, near where the Ohio River and Twelve Mile Creek. You can read about it here. (pdf) |
Hey! No cows is this man's meadows:
| “The following is a copy of a written notice posted upon a farm a short distance from Newport, on the Alexandria Pike: 'Nottis-know kow is alloud in these meders any men or women letten that kows run the rode wot gits inter my medders aforesead shall have his tail cut off by me' Obadiiah Rogers.” Courier-Journal, May 27, 1873 |
