I thoroughly enjoyed your search for the working model of the SPRAGUE, and the happy ending. I am the great-great niece of Captain Peter Sprague. I am from the Pittsburgh area and when I was young we visited the SPRAGUE model at the Carnegie Museum. It was situated in a dark corner. My father, George Sprague, asked the security guard to show us the "working" model. He then placed a key in the wall to turn it on. The paddle turned and the lights came on. Years later I learned it had been removed from the display and I assumed it was in the basement of the museum. Thank you for your 18 year search!

Congratulations on a very nice website!

My father, Harry Miller, worked at the Marine Ways as an operating engineer between 1930 and 1941. I was born in 1934, and lived with my parents along with my grandmother, Effie Piper, in Elrama.

My folks moved to Maryland in 1941, where my Dad worked with Bethlehem Steel Corp helping to build Liberty ships in the Baltimore harbor.(I was only six years old at the time.)
He later became the chief operating engineer for the large cranes used to build the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, as well as other major East Coast bridges. He also worked on skyscraper projects in Manhatten.
He operated his pleasure boat on the Chesapeake, and obtained his Coast Guard captain's license during WWII. During that time he rescued the crew of the Hawaii Mars when it crashed in the Bay.
Any info you might have concerning operating engineers at the Marine Ways during the 1930s would be appreciated.
Many thanks,
Terry Miller

Jay... hope you get this message. The Elizabeth item we discussed at the Mark Twain Presentation is being returned to Elizabeth Township Historical Society tomorrow. If you send me your address, I can send you the attached letter that will accompany it. Glad it has found its home finally!

Looking for more photos of the various metal fare tokens used on the West Elizabeth Bridge. There are quite a few different types known.

Amazing web page, so glad to find it and read the history about my 3rd great uncle John William Lynch

Wonderful and interesting history of the Elizabeth area, and the people who lived there.

Hello from Michigan, I have many relatives who lived and worked in Elizabeth (Pollack family), and also have a newspaper article from 1911 describing the death of one of my ancestors (He was 5 years old and hit by a car), and I also have a photo of my great grandfather in his shop on Market St. in 1924. I would love to make them part of the page if possible, and I am also looking for more info on Eliz. history. Thank you!

Hello,I was interested on any information regarding the copyrights of the pictures of the Goldenrod Showboat. Such beautiful pictures!Lisa

I have an interest in the Boaz. It`s my husband`s family. I loved the photos and would love to find any additional information or other contacts with info would be greatly appreciated. I enjoyed reading the journal entries. They provide some interesting insight to the times. Thank you for posting!

I was raised on the Mon River at Stockdale when there were mostly steam sternwheelers. I enjoy looking thru you site periodically to see what is new. I especially enjoyed the first time I played the steamboat whistle sound track. Brought back a lot of memories of my youth. I have often toyed with the idea of building a model of one of the single stack boats like Pittsburgh Coal. One time at Montgomery Locks fishing with my dad, the cooks tossed us some apples. Do you have any information where I might find or purchase drawings of these boats? Thank you and keep up the good work.Warren Price, Livermore, CA ex. Charleroi Cougar.

Video link J&L Steel ship passing Allenport late 60`s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7XBF69-Rp4

Elizabeth Herald November 4, 1887Copied from Elizabeth Herald November 4, 1887Local History In Bits.-----------------------------------------------------The first charter for a ferry at Elizabeth was granted by the Pennsylvania Legislature in the 1796, and it was owned and operated for many years by Major John Walker. A skiff for passengers and a shallow flat, pushed by long poles, for teams, sufficed to meet the wants of the place until about the year 1870, when an old steam ferryboat was bought by Theo. S. Tower and put on the trade by him and Daniel Sarver, who owned the franchise. The Boyd brothers and James McKown bought it soon after, and in 1873 built the fine ferryboat Sam Roberts, which is still running.

nice photos of all three BV bridges thanks

Just passing thru Jay, just wanted to check your updates, As always, interesting.

Hi Jay, Just me snooping around again, haven`t been here since I got the new computer. I see that you are still doing great work, and keeping up on things. Still a great site, and one of my favorites. Keep up the good work. Very nice that you got the font changed, much more easier to navigate,Don

I`m interested in the name Harry Brown listed, I cannot find my grandfather.

I have local newspapers about the use of the steamer `Mary McKinney` which was built at Elizabeth, PA in 1849 and ran on the Holston River in East Tennessee. Any information you may have would be of interest to me, such as dimensions, engine size, etc.

VERY cool site. My great-grandfather was William Hodgson, noted in the Men of Marine Ways photos.

Hi Jay, See that you are still at it and continuing to add great material and photos. Think that I may have asked this question before, but do you or any of your readers know what the riverboat whistle signals mean? Sure would like to know. The only times that I remember hearing them was when approching the locks,(Long and two shorts) and when leaving the locks,(Three shorts) They are not the same as the Railroad uses, because three shorts on the RR mean backing up. Just curious, keep up the good work,If I get back to Brownsville again next year, would be glad to buy you a hotdog at Fiddle`s.

Have photo I would like to see if you could identify. Monitor sinking in Mon river 1925

Very interested in the Henry A. Laughlin boat and who was Henry A. Laughlin.

Hey Jay, there`s that ring again buddy.I guess that I didn`t tell you in our personel correspondance how huch that I really enjoy your site,man you have a lifetime of work and wonder here. Kinda like a Time Warp. I have been away from the Rivers(Monongahela) for over 53 years, but still miss it. Love hearing those old steam whistles, used to lay in bed at night as a kid, and watch the spotlights, and listen to the whistles as the boats approched lock #5 in Brownsville. Two longs, two shorts approching, Three shorts leaving. When these boats came upriver from Brownsville past Vesta#7 in the daytime, we used to row our rowboats out and catch the first `Whitecap` from the paddlewheel, and let it pull us up river. The deckhands used to come out and holler at us and shake their fists at us cause they thought that we were getting too close, They used to say, `Your Going To Get Sucked Under Boy` but then the ole cook would appear, and usually throw us some nice naval oranges, or peaches. what a treat.Now that I have basically found the trophy `The Greater Pittsburgh` I am just waiting for some futher details to make it official, and I will gladly share the information with everyone. I would like to thank yourself,Bill Reynolds from `The Sons & Daughters of Riverman` in Marietta, Ohio, and Russ Morehouse for all of your help and guidance in finding this trophy. Couldn`t have done it without your help, thanks guy`s. Hoping you will keep the site, and continue to upgrade it, as I plan on visiting it more often, It`s just a great place to visit,I can only imagine the countless hours of your life that you have invested. Keep up the good work, and If I get back to Pennsylvania this year like I plan to, I will surely look you up and compare some notes with you. Thanks again, Don

The picture of Wylie class of 1910 is my grandmothers. I recognize her handwriting and my grandfather Amose Elmer Meyers is in the photo. Thoroughly enjoy your website! What a great collection of information.

Thank you for a wonderful website. My family is from the Monongahela area. Kennedy, Curry, Hagerty, Blaney, to name a few. Some of them worked to build boats.

Thrilled to find this site. My grandfather was a riverboat pilot on the Sprague. Had no idea there was a model of it. I have lots of pics - who can I share them with?

We have researced for years and finally came across all this last night. We are hoping to compile more information for our heritage information. We do know the Sterling family moved here to N. Falls in 1900. William Ridgway Sterling was married to Maggie (Barber). Hope you can help us in some way to check this info.

Somewhere in my wonderings I picked up a reprint of The three Towns, a sketch 9of Brownsville, Bridge port and West Brownsville. first published in 1883.

Patty and Julie, my two sisters, Karl, my brother and I grew up in Elizabeth, as did Helen Kobil my mother, her four brothers and my grandmother. Helen Kobil`s maiden name was Pavilino and she went to school with Orrie Rockwell. John, Charles, Frank, and Steve Mackinack were her brothers. We literally lived on the riverside of the railroad tracks (502-504 First & Bayard Street). Everyone in the family had some connection with the steel, coal or river.My Uncle Steve was a riverman and a great affecionado of the rear paddlewheel steamboats that plied the Mon, Allegheny and Ohio. He knew the history of each and collected hundreds of photgraphs. He would stay up into the night listening to riverboat traffic on his ham radio. He also built many steamboat models from scratch. If I`m not mistaken, I believe he had something to do with the building the model of the Sprauge.

I was born in 1951 in Vicksburg, Ms, and grew up playing on and around the Sprague. I have been on board several hundred times from stem to stern, and everywhere in between. There was a large photo display of old Miss. river steamboats on the bottom level. I was there the night that she burned and shed a few tears for her. There was a movement to restore her after the fire, but the money never was made available. At one point in the 1960`s, during high water, she broke loose from her mooring and drifted down below the river bridge before being caught. She was used a a prop in a moviein the early 1960`s, being pushed by a towboat down the Mississippi river.

The new link to the Allenport / Fayette City site is http://www.hopealiveclinic.org/index1.html Newly posted is a newspaper page from 1960 featuring the Allenport ferry and also the the Newell /Coal Center flat. Enjoy.

I was born in Elizabeth, then the family moved away. On Jan. 1st, 1957, two of my brothers and I moved back when our mother died. We lived on Oak Hill, next to the Cavanaugh houses.Later I lived in an apartment on the 3rd floor of the Pittsburgh National Bank building until 1981.I used to fish in the Mon nearly every night in the summer; when I was fishing one night (1961?)I saw a sternwheel towboat churning south on the river. I think that was the last run of the last sternwheel boat on the Mon.We used to fish from the `butments south of the Marine Ways, until they burned down; all that was left was a huge stack of driftwood.I went to Wylie School for the 7th grade, then to 8th grade at Elizabeth-Forward Junior High on Town Hill.I remember the 1st time we went to the Grand Theater. As a 13-year old `adult`, I had to pay 30 cents for my ticket; I was shocked!In the winter the County paid me $1.25 per hour to shovel cinders in the mornings on the steep snow-covered road from Route 51 to the top of Oak Hill. I used some of that cash to buy plastic airplane models at the G.C. Murphy 5&10; they cost $.99 & $1.99.I worked for six years at Bargain Corner on Rte. 51, which was owned by Joe & Abe Horowitz - fine bosses.~~~ Enough for now ~~~

Am researching the ancestry of my father-in-law, records indicatehis place of birth as Lock 3 Elizabeth PA? in approx 1913 or 1914.Any idea if there was a residence at that location, perhaps the lockmaster?Bob Haller412-766-7549

I grew up on Cemetary Hill in the 40`s & 50`s. When everyone had a nickname,(puggy,Reba, Weiser, Archie ball,Gut,Percy, Jap, Homer, etc.) What a great town to grow up in. My friends & I used to pick junk down at the Marine Ways an fish for carp & catfish at the mouth of the creek. My friend Carl Heble built a kaiak and we would put it in at the creek and go out into the river. If we got in the first wave behind the steam boat we could just coast along. Thank You for a great Web site and a trip down memory lane.Hanging out at the `Huddle` and shooting pool at Joe Tomko`s pool hall. Going to Elizabeth High School. Great friendly Policemen like John Jenkins, Ben Ware, Charley SicklesWe learned how to swim by jumping off of the Lock 3 wall, it was either swim or drown. When the steamers came into the locks they would give us food and the guys shoveling coal into the boilers would throw us salt candy.I remember going down to the river to the Steamboat, Showboat.

Yesterday I visited the Mississippi Museum in Dubuque and was very impressed by the model of the Sprague. I noticed that there are a large number of longitudinal tension bracing cables. They looked as if maybe they were to maintain the curvature of the hull of the boat. Does anyone have any information on how these cables contributed to the structure of the boat? Thanks.

Great web site if you have any more info on the Lynch`s would love to see it.

I`ve never been to Elizabeth but I believe my older brother John did go there once upon a time. I can`t tell you how thrilling it is to reconnect with my ancestors. Great work, terrific site!

Outstanding. My Grandfather, Bunk Robb, worked at the Marine Ways in Elizabeth in the early part of the last century. Later, he worked in Pittsburgh for Harry Zubik. It`s great to view this river history. This brings back many childhood memories growing up in Elizabeth.

This is a great accomplishment! On this site I found photos of the sternwheeler Raymond Horner. My great Uncle, Howard Crawford, was piloting this boat near Parkersburg WV circa 1904 when the pilot house was swept off by a cable strung across the river. At one time there was a model of the Horner in the River Museum in Wellsville Ohio. Does anyone know its whereabouts?Also, looking for photos of the remnants of the old ferry operations around Brownsville, Pa. Onde was opened by my direct ancestor in 1768. Thanks.

What a wonderful site, thanks for sharing the opportunity to learn more about the boat-building industry at Elizabeth.

i was six months old when our family left pittsburgh area so my father could work at the new u.s.steel plant at fairless.you did a great thing and great presentation of the lynch clan.i will follow this journal as time permits.

we took many pictures of the water ways and all the bridges...just everything there...colecting old clippings....anything..all the information that david scott gave us....well we are hooked on all the history....we have pigfords history and picture and newspaper clippings thanks to the keeper at the cemetary there...ohhhhhhhh i can`t say enough about all the history we have collected from your nice place of dravesoburg,pa...would love to visit again and again..thank you all for the help and all the sites...carole johnson

I ENJOY THIS VIDEO VERY MUCH. I RUN IT OVER AND OVER.IT TAKES ME BACK TO MY EARLY LIFE, WHEN THERE WERE MANY STEAMBOATS ON THE RIVER. I SPENT MOST OF MY SUMMER DAYS AS A BOY, SWIMMING AND BOATING ON THE OHIO, NEAR MY HOME IN JEFFERSONVILLE,INDIANA. IT`S A SPECIAL TREAT TO HEAR THE WHISTLES, AND SEE THE BIG WHEELS ROLLING.~ FRANCIS E. GRIMM ~

I just wanted to thank you for presenting the tapes of the Steamboat Parade at Elizabeth Pa. in 1934. I was especially thrilled to see the many shots of the Wm. LARIMER JONES. My Dad worked at Howards when she was built, and worked as a steamfitter installing her engines and boilers. Also worked on her sister the TITAN. My uncle Bill Grimm also worked for the Howards, and was dating Ruth Howard at the time of her tragic death. He retired from Jeff Boat after 30 yrs. service. My uncle Walter Grimm was a pilot & captain on the river for some 25/30 years. Was long time captain of the Mv. SOHIOAN, towing oil products for Standard Oil Co. I remember seeing the Jones & the Titan when my Dad took me and my brother there when I was 5yrs. old. I will be 84 yrs. old on July 23 2009.I would also like to add, that my Dad got permission to take me and my brother Richard, on an initial trial trip of the TITAN. We were on the top deck and had gone only a few miles up the river, when she developed an over heated wheel shaft bearing journal, and had to be shut down. We drifted with the current until a Howard work boat came out and towed us back to the yards. This event could probably still be found in some of the old Howard records. I can also remember my dad taking us up in the pilot house of the Howard built towboat, MARK TWAIN. I once had a picture of us, taken on her fantail next to her wheel. If I can ever find it I will post it for all to see. I can still see the beautiful lettering of her name, shaded in gold leaf.

Very great web site. I am a grand daughter of Capt. A. J. McKean and your web site about the steam ships and His boat the John Wood are great. Can`t add too much to the history. I am just trying to learn everything I can about the Capt and his times on the rivers. Thank you for putting together a fantastic site. Grace

I am the Secretary for the Charleroi Area Historical Society, Inc.We have the original copies of the 65 years collection of `Old Man River`, C. B. Copeland who was a consultant to Mark Twain. In this collection there are multitudes of photos and information. If you are ever in the area and would like to research these items, please contact me via this e-mail: nacs333@yahoo.com .

Amazing... I am speachless!

I lived in the Hunt Building on Market Street from 1937 until it was torn down. Remember all the old stores. Worked in the 5 & 10 from 1946 to 1951. Elizabeth was a great place to grow up - you didn`t have to lock your doors at night and everyone knew everyone else. People looked out for each other.

Love anything that has to do with Elizabeth. My great Aunt was Effie Bennett. My Bennett family, Gersham, his son George Sr. and his son Westley all built boats. Any additional info about the Bennett`s would be great!

This web site brought back a vast number of memories. I grew up in Elizabeth from 1956 until we moved to `the country` (Forward Twp.) in 1967. Because much of my childhood was spent walking around Elizabeth for many reasons, the street scenes are especially poignant, and I have a lot of highly specific memories of being in certain spots that are depicted here. My grandfather and grandmother were Mr. and Mrs. John David Cox, and until Granddaddy`s death in 1962, I spent a huge amount of time in the funeral home. Following the sale of the funeral home to Granddaddy`s associate, Walt Bierman, Grandma lived with my Nonna, Marianna Favro, in the little house next to the funeral home until her death in 2002. Our family still owns that house. It has an interesting history, having been partially constructed from pallets that were scavenged from the shipping yard. Nonna was one of the early co-owners of Marraccini`s markets, originating in Clairton. She sold out her interest in the market in perhaps the 1930s. My grandma talked often about working at the Clairton market as a child (she was born in 1908). My brother Greg and I worked at Marraccini`s until we left town, I in 1978 and Greg soon afterward. It was a wonderful place to work, with a great boss (Ray Marraccini), fun and friendly co-workers, and a clientele of sweet older people who lived within walking distance of the store. The PAT bus stop was right by Marraccini`s parking lot and afforded us a way to attend Penguins games when I was in high school in the early 1970s. All in all, I have MANY wonderful, HAPPY memories of Elizabeth. Thank you for posting all these photos.

It`s nice to see my heritage listed on the web. Thanks for the remembrance of my Grand Father John D Cox. and also Marricinies