Henry Miller Shreve

Henry Miller Shreve (October 21, 1785 – March 6, 1851) was an American inventor and steamboat captain who removed obstructions to navigation of the Mississippi, Ohio and Red rivers. Shreveport, Louisiana was named in his honor.

Shreve was also instrumental in breaking the Fulton-Livingston monopoly on steamboat traffic on the lower Mississippi. He was the first riverboat captain to travel the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and back, as well as the first to bring a keelboat from the Ohio River up the Mississippi to the Fever River in Illinois. Shreve also made significant improvements to the steamboat and the steam engine, such as separate boilers to power side paddlewheels independently, horizontal cylinders, and multiple decks to allow for passengers and entertainment.

Early life

Shreve was born October 21, 1785, to Israel Shreve, a Quaker farmer who had served as a colonel in the American Revolution, and the former Mary Cokely at Mount Pleasant (Burlington County, New Jersey), the family homestead near Columbus, New Jersey in Mansfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey. On July 7, 1788, the Shreves left New Jersey for their new home on property owned by George Washington in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

Young Henry's new home was close to the Youghiogheny River near the present day borough of Perryopolis. After his father's death in 1802, Shreve served on several riverboats to help support his family.

Career

In 1807, Shreve was a captain and built a barge of 35 tons, at Brownsville, Pennsylvania on the Monongahela River. He manned with a crew of ten men for a voyage to St. Louis, which he reached in December of that year. After purchasing a cargo of furs, he returned to Pittsburgh and forwarded them to Philadelphia. He continued this trade for three years with considerable profit, as each voyage was on his own account.

In 1810, Shreve decided to open a new line of business, lead trade. On 2 May, he left in a new barge of 35 tons manned by 12 men and made the trip from St. Louis to where Galena, Illinois was later built, in 14 days. He remained until July 1 busily employed in traffic with the natives, buying 60 tons of lead. He was therefore compelled to build a flat boat, and buy a Mackinaw boat, to transport his return cargo. His flotilla reached St Louis in 12 days, the beginning of the American lead trade on the Upper Mississippi. He took his cargo to New Orleans and then shipped it to Philadelphia, earning upwards of $11,000. In 1847 that trade equalled in value about $3,000,000 annually, estimating only the shipments from Fever River. In 1810, there were less than 10 small settlements between Louisville and the mouth of the Ohio River and about the same number between the latter and Vicksburg. Shreve never repeated the trip to Galena, as his success induced others to send 6 barges to Galena. Upon his return to Brownsville that year he built a barge of 95 ton capacity, and began regular voyages between Pittsburgh and New Orleans for the next 4 years.

For example, on February 11, 1814, Shreve's barge was registered at New Orleans . After loading his boat with cargo, Shreve and crew hauled and poled the vessel against strong river currents, probably reaching Brownsville before July 1814.

Commanding the Enterprise, December 1814-January 1815

A group of Brownsville investors had formed a stock company, the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company, to conduct steamboat commerce on the Western rivers. To this end, the company commissioned a new steamboat to be constructed at Brownsville. During the winter and spring of 1814, while Shreve was on the voyage to New Orleans, the Enterprise, with an engine and power train designed and built by Daniel French, was constructed. Between June and December 1814, the Enterprise, under the command of Israel Gregg, made two successful voyages transporting passengers and cargo to ports between Brownsville and Louisville, Kentucky. By December, the company had decided to send the Enterprise to New Orleans with a cargo of munitions for General Andrew Jackson's troops to defend the city against an invasion by British forces.

Command of the Enterprise was transferred to Henry Shreve because of his firsthand knowledge of the hazards to navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. On December 21, 1814, the Enterprise departed Pittsburgh with the munitions, passed the Falls at Louisville on December 28, 1814 and arrived at New Orleans on January 9, 1815, one day after the Battle of New Orleans.