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Sixty-one die as steamboat burns
On this day in 1869, sixty-one men, women, and children died when the
sidewheel steamboat Mittie Stephens caught fire on Caddo Lake
during a run from New Orleans to Jefferson, Texas. The boat had been
plying the New Orleans-Red River route since 1866. At that time
Jefferson was the head of navigation via Caddo Lake due to the great log
raft that obstructed traffic on the Red River. The Mittie Stephens
had left New Orleans on February 5 with 107 passengers and crew and a
cargo that included 274 bales of hay. On the night of the twelfth, a
breeze blew a spark to the hay from the torch baskets that lighted the
bows of the boat, and the resulting fire could not be contained. The
boat headed for the shore, 300 yards away, but grounded in three feet of
water near Swanson's Landing. The pilot and the engineer kept the wheels
running in an attempt to force the boat to shore; the action of the
wheels pulled the people struggling in the water into them and killed
most of them. The Mittie Stephens burned to the water line, and
parts of the wreck could be seen above the water until the early
twentieth century. Jefferson remained the principal riverport of Texas
until the logjam was removed in 1874.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- MITTIE STEPHENS
- CADDO LAKE
- JEFFERSON, TX
- SWANSON'S LANDING
- RED RIVER
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
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