Oct 11, 2010 By Christine Haines 3 min read

The commercial steamboat industry got its start in Brownsville with the building of the “Enterprise” in 1814, but the industry is now all but forgotten. Marc Henshaw, an industrial archeologist from Hiller, wants to make sure it doesn’t disappear entirely from our historic landscape. For his doctoral dissertation he is collecting oral histories from people who worked in the steamboat industry. He is looking for people who worked on the steamboats on the Monongahela River through the 1950s, or as dockworkers during the steamboat era.

Many of them worked for J&L or Carnegie (steel companies). They weren’t contracting at that time; they had their own fleets,” Henshaw said.

Henshaw said so far he has interviewed eight former steamboat workers, including a deckhand/pilot, a cook and chambermaids.

“I haven’t encountered any dockworkers or landing workers. I’m hoping they come forward,” Henshaw said. “I actually did my master’s thesis on the steamboat industry in Brownsville. As a dissertation, I wanted to know what the life of an average worker was like.”

Henshaw said he has been surprised by what he has learned in the few interviews he’s already done.

“People viewed these boats as home and they took pride in the place where they lived,” Henshaw said. “It’s surprising the love these people had for the boats. It was home away from home.”

Henshaw said the crews were together 24 hours a day for six-day stretches. While the work was hard, those who worked the river on both steam and diesel vessels said they much preferred steam.

“The diesels are so much different from the steam engines,” Henshaw said. “When you talk to these guys who worked both, they say they’d go back to steam. It was quieter and they had more amenities.”

Henshaw said oral history provides the detail and emotional content that is missing from historic documents. Henshaw said the workers he has interviewed so far talked about feeling the heat from the steam engine and knowing the proper temperature by watching the color of the fire.

“There weren’t any gauges on the steam engines for a long time. You listened to the valves and came to understand it,” Henshaw said.

“My dissertation is ranging from 1870 to 1950. I’m looking at 19th century steamboat operators and talking to workers from today to see what life was like for these workers in the 18th century. We produced 850 boats. Who were these people in the area and what was their life like?” Henshaw said.

In addition to gathering oral histories, Henshaw is looking for the former site of a river man’s home to study archeologically. Henshaw said he has found records indicating river men owning their homes free and clear by the early 1900s and he is curious about what those homes were like.

Henshaw said his interest in the field began when he was an undergraduate at California University of Pennsylvania.

“I found an old diary of a steamboat captain when I was an undergraduate,” Henshaw said.

Henshaw holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from California University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Arts degree in anthropology with a focus on historical archaeology and ethnohistory from Western Michigan University. Henshaw has completed everything except his dissertation for his doctorate in industrial archeology from Michigan Technological University.

Anyone wishing to participate in the oral history project may call Henshaw at 724-322-9971.