SCIOTO BELLE. The Scioto Belle, a river steamer believed to have been built on the Scioto River in Ohio, arrived at Galveston from New Orleans on May 7, 1844. The Vessel was described in the Telegraph and Texas Registerqv as a substantial, well-built boat, nearly new, well adapted for carrying freight, and with excellent accommodations for passengers. The steamer operated between Galveston and Houston and landings on the Trinity River but, probably because of the poor condition of the channel in the 1840s, was not able to go much farther up the river than Liberty Landing. During 1844 the Scioto Belle was docked at Lynchburg during a yellow fever epidemic and was converted by Dr. John Henry Bowersqv into a hospital where he treated fifteen cases of the fever.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Pat Ireland Nixon, The Medical Story of Early Texas, 1528-1853 (Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Lupe Memorial Fund, 1946). Telegraph and Texas Register, May 15, 1844.
Wayne Gard
