This weekend is Easter and typically we try to spend it with my wife’s family in New York City. Spending time away from home and the same old routine is good for a change, not to mention the great time spent with family. This trip there won’t be much time for sightseeing, but we may try to stop at a few places along the way.

For my son Paulie, one of the best parts about the trip, not only seeing grandparents, is the anticipation of traveling.

He loves getting up early, packing into the car before daybreak and starting our journey. I remember loving that, too, as a child. It was the anticipation of a great trip and the specialness of leaving early. For this trip, my son had his bag packed for the car trip. Books, toys, electronics and the like were ready and waiting for us to get underway. Wednesday morning, he was ready at the car willing to help move things along, and I was happy to have his help.

Traveling in the distant past was always an adventure. In the late 18th century, the only way to move through the wilderness was by foot, horse or by boat. The river was a wild body of water and in the winter, it was not passable. The river wasn’t as deep, either, as you had shallow places along the sides until you hit the channel. Sandbars, rocks and rapids were a constant danger. There were also times when the river was low, especially in the late summer and early fall. The river could freeze solid, too.

In November of 1786 through February of 1787 the river was frozen, making it not navigable and rendering travel almost impossible. When the settlers came down the river and settled in our area, typically they were coming from Pittsburgh. Like the expedition by Meriweather Lewis in August of 1803, many boats were made in the Pittsburgh area and travelers would outfit their flat boats in the city with all the necessary supplies and head down the river to points south and west. They could charter a boat, as well. The trouble, of course, was navigating up the river against the current. According to Joseph Doyle who wrote the tome, “History of Steubenville and Jefferson County” in 1910, the first steamship to descend the Ohio River from Pittsburgh was the New Orleans, which was built by Robert Fulton, inventor of the first commercially-successful steamship; Robert Livingston, one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence; and Nicolas Roosevelt, great-granduncle of President Teddy Roosevelt. The ship left Pittsburgh on Oct. 20, 1811, and arrived in Steubenville that same day.

The story of that ship’s journey to New Orleans is extremely interesting. Along the way they encountered many trials and tribulations including earthquakes and even a comet, but they did make it to New Orleans.

After that first successful trip, some other ships steamed down the river, including the Comet, but none was capable of a return trip. In June of 1815 though, the realization that ships could navigate up the river was realized when the steamship Enterprise made its way past Steubenville on the way to Pittsburgh from New Orleans after being used in the War of 1812. According to Doyle, the trip from New Orleans had taken just 35 days and as the ship passed the city of Steubenville, crowds assembled on the riverbank to see it steam by.

With the advent of the steamship, Steubenville opened to more travelers. As Doyle puts it, the whole business of flatboats on the Ohio as a means of travel dissolved overnight. Steamships were the rule of the day. Many ships were built from Pittsburgh to Wheeling, some successful and others not so much. Steubenville’s first boatyard was started by Elijah Murray on the river between Washington and North streets in 1819. The first order for a steamboat engine was given to Arthur M. Phillips, a native of Carlisle, Pa., who came to town in 1807. His foundry, according to Doyle, was located where the Means Foundry was later established, just at the end of North Street near the river.

The first steamship built at Steubenville was the Bezaleel Wells and it was completed in 1820. Its maiden voyage, however, proved to be a memorable one. When the ship first was launched from Steubenville, it went directly across the river and struck the West Virginia side toppling its brick chimney. After repairs were made, the ship started out toward Pittsburgh with passengers and crew. After only about two miles north of Steubenville, the pump broke and the ship tied up to the shore for repairs.

The next day the ship was repaired and set off. Within sight of Browns Island, the current of the river was so strong that the ship could hardly make any headway.

That night the ship moored just below the point of the island and, still a curiosity in the region, was met by a constant torrent of visitors who had come down to see the steamboat. A dance that night was held on deck with fiddle and flute and great fun was had. The next day the ship turned around and returned to Steubenville, considering, as Doyle recounted, they could still hear the bells of Steubenville. A week later, the ship set off again and finally made it to Pittsburgh in five days. These accounts of the journey are a fascinating account of early river travel on the Ohio and are recounted in Doyle’s book in great detail.

After this first ship made the journey from Steubenville, the shipyards in town produced vessels called the Robert Thompson, Steubenville, Aurora, and Congress, among others. These ships were much more successful than the early ships on the Ohio. The time of river travel had begun. Typically, these early vessels were sidewheelers, with the wheel that propelled the ships located on the side of the vessel. Sternwheelers were not seen as reliable.

The first packet boats stopped in Steubenville in 1831, but according to Doyle by the 1860s, this industry was replaced by the railroad. The railroad arrived in Steubenville in the 1850s, but river travel was still very popular up until the 1870s and 1880s, but after, faced a steep decline in our area.

Today there are only a few riverboats that still carry passengers on the river. Mostly they are vacation trips, and none are used for transit purposes as they once were in the past. Railroads were replaced by planes and automobiles and today a trip to Pittsburgh can be made in under an hour from my house in Weirton.

Even still, the allure of a trip is exciting. Very much like our early pioneers who were awed by the prospect of travel, my son is still excited for a trip, and I hope he never loses that enthusiasm.

(Zuros is Hancock County administrator)