Down the Ohio River

The Queen of the Mississippi moored at Louisville, KY. Photo by author.

In July 2017, my parents and I went on a cruise down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to St. Louis, near where the Ohio meets the Mississippi. We sailed on the Queen of the Mississippi, which offered many amenities—cabins with balconies looking out on the river, comfortable lounges in which to relax, delicious meals, warm chocolate cookies every day—all the wonders of modern luxury transportation.

Before the trip, I knew that the Ohio River was an important means by which people moved west in America, particularly after the American Revolution and the opening of the Old Northwest Territory. The late 18th century was a time of substantial internal migration in the newly established United States, as Revolutionary War soldiers claimed their bounty land and the American citizenry began to see the western lands not as the “back country,” far from their European lands of origin, but as a new frontier begging for exploration (Fischer & Kelly 2000).

What I didn't realize was that, in making this journey from Pittsburgh down the Ohio River, I was actually replicating—although in a considerably different style—a trip made by the family of my five times great-grandfather, Thomas Longley. Thomas was born around 1746 in New York and served in the American Revolution with Colonel John Lasher's militia regiment (Roberts 1898). Following the war, he was a man of some substance in New York City—a business owner, a shoemaker, and a deacon of the First Baptist Church in the City of New York.

But then in 1788, he decided to take his family and move to western Kentucky. A biographical sketch of his oldest son John, who later became a well-known minister, suggests that Thomas made this decision on the advice of a visiting Baptist preacher (Evans 1862). There's no knowing for sure, but I suspect that his intention was actually to follow the Reverend John Gano, minister of the First Baptist Church, who himself moved to what is now Maysville, Kentucky, in 1787.

The area that became Mason County, Kentucky, had been settled by Europeans beginning in 1773. In 1784, Simon Kenton, a noted Virginia frontiersman and one of the early explorers of the region, established the first settlement near modern Maysville, and a few years later, another noted frontiersman, Daniel Boone, opened a trading post and tavern at Limestone Creek on the Ohio River (Clift 1936).

Advertisement in the New York Packet, November 2, 1787

After selling his land and house in New York City, Thomas and his family, including his wife, his elderly mother-in-law, and five children under the age of ten, embarked first for Pittsburgh, presumably by wagon so that they could carry their household goods, and then down the Ohio River.

John Longley’s biographical sketch describes the journey as harrowing:

But at last they reached the head waters of the Ohio, and embarked, with their earthly possessions, in rudely-constructed boats. The passage down the river was long and perilous. They were once caught in a storm, in which they lost one of their boats and its cargo; and they were several times fired upon by Indians from the inhospitable shore (Evans 1862, p. 12).

When they arrived in Kentucky, the family disembarked at the mouth of Limestone Creek, a landing place now commemorated with a mural showing settlers arriving by flat boat.

Mural depicting arrival of settlers, Limestone Landing, Maysville, KY. Photo by author.

They made their way to the small settlement of Washington (formerly Kenton’s Station and now part of Maysville), where they were confronted with living in very different circumstances than what they had known in New York City. As John Longley’s biographical sketch explains:

The hospitalities of a Mr. Cox were extended to them, and gladly accepted. He had a hewed-log house, with two small rooms, and a good puncheon floor. In this the two families lived, on terms of the closest intimacy, until Mr. Longley could select a site, and erect thereon a dwelling (Evans 1862, p. 12).

Martha Hixson’s consent to marry Thomas Longley, 1796

Thomas Longley remained in Mason County, Kentucky, for more than 20 years, living much of that time in the settlement of Mays Lick. After his first wife’s death in about 1795, he married my five times great-grandmother Martha Hixson and had six more children. In 1810, Thomas, with Martha and their children, removed to Butler County, Ohio, north of Cincinnati and about 100 miles from Maysville, where he lived until his death in 1818.

When I arrived in Maysville, Kentucky, 229 years after Thomas and his family, I also disembarked at Limestone Creek. By that time I had realized the family connection and was delighted to have the chance to visit Maysville’s Washington Historic District, where a number of late 18th century houses and cabins have been preserved. I learned a lot about how settlers of that era lived and even got to see a cabin built from the wood of a flat boat, a common practice for settlers such as Thomas and his family who arrived in such boats.

Mefford’s Station: cabin build using lumber from the flat boat in which George Mefford and his family arrived at Maysville in 1787. Photo by author.

The experience of following in my ancestors’ footsteps made their journey far more real for me, although I realize my situation was much different from theirs. I was able to fly to Pittsburgh from Texas in a few hours, and our river trip took only 3 days to reach Maysville, including considerable time spent at anchor to allow for sightseeing. I didn’t have to worry about storms or other dangers. My meals (and those delicious cookies) appeared with no effort on my part. Still, I never think of Thomas Longley now without thinking of the Ohio River and the choice he made to take his family on a journey into the unknown, a decision that shaped his family’s future and led ultimately to my own life.

Works Cited

Clift, G. Glenn. 1936. The History of Maysville and Mason County, Vol. 1. Lexington, KY: Transylvania Printing Company.

Evans, Madison. 1862. “John Longley.” Biographical Sketches of the Pioneer Preachers of Indiana. Philadelphia, PA: J. Challen and Sons.

Fischer, David H., and James C. Kelly. 2000. Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.

Roberts, James A. 1898. New York in the Revolution as Colony and State. Albany, NY: Press of Brandow Printing Company.