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June 2005 Edition
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Serene Light - June 2005 Edition
| Lydia and the Mighty River - Part 1
|
| By Mary Trotter Kion
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Lydia would, many years hence, become the great grand aunt of Theodore
Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States of America. But that
was not her major claim to fame. It was merely a by-product of
marriage. Nor was the highlight of her life the fact that her own
father, the
American architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, had introduced the Greek
Revival style to American architecture and rebuilt the Capitol in
Washington D.C. after it was burned by the British in 1814. This was
only a
chance of birth.
Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt’s fame involved simpler elements: water, birth,
earthquake, and a mighty river that, for a time, ran backwards.
Lydia first met Nicholas Roosevelt when she was nine years old. He had
been an ancient thirty-four at the time and a business associate of
Lydia’s father. But evidently the wide gulf between their ages was of
little consequence, at least to Lydia and Nicholas. When Lydia was
thirteen, and over her father’s objections, she became engaged to
Nicholas
Roosevelt. Four years later, they were married.
Now Lydia Roosevelt, at seventeen, could conduct herself with the
extreme decorum expected of a matron in the early years of America’s
1800s.
She could conduct herself thusly except that Lydia was an adventurous
rebel. It is said that she also possessed remarkably advanced
attitudes,
as well as being bright and assertive, artistic and most of
all—fearless. Not a very ladylike description for the time, it is true.
It well
may have been these very traits that made her such an excellent mate
for
enterprising and also adventurous Nicholas Roosevelt.
Nicholas, himself, was considered a maverick. He was also a man of many
skills. He was a mechanic, metallurgist, machinist, and civil engineer.
And he was obsessed with building steam engines, and for good reasons.
One of those reasons was that 90 percent of river traffic on the
Mississippi River between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and New Orleans,
Louisiana
was made downriver by keelboat. This was a voyage that took, on the
average, four to six weeks. It was the return trip that made trade a
grueling and unsatisfactory business. Working against a treacherous and
often deceiving current, the return trip took a minimum of four weeks
of
extreme labor.
Lydia Roosevelt’s husband was determined to change that by taking a
steamboat all the way from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. It was a
dangerous,
and possibly deadly, undertaking. And Lydia was not going to let her
husband have all the fun, even if she was pregnant with their first
child.
Before the Roosevelts could make such a steamboat adventure an
exploratory voyage by water would have to be made to determine if such
a trip
by means of steam was even remotely possible.
The adventure began with the building and furnishing of a barge. Lydia,
using the skills she had learned from her architect father, set about
designing the interior of their craft. Her plans included a bedroom,
designed for comfort. Perhaps she was looking ahead with an open mind
to
the fact that her first child very well might be born aboard their
barge. Her boat design also provided for a dining room, pantry, and a
room
in front for their crew that included a fireplace for cooking. As
to
the crew that would occupy this room, there was a pilot, three hands
and
a male cook, as well as a maid for Lydia. Looking toward all hands
enjoying balmy evenings on the Mississippi River, a flat area was
provided,
sporting seats and an awning.
And so their flatboat adventure began. When they reached Louisville,
they took some time off the river for three weeks. Lydia, in the early
stages of her pregnancy, had begun to show.
Lydia’s husband constantly took soundings, gauged the river’s current,
all the while taking note of the topography and any hazards the waters
could bestow upon them, now and in the future. Roosevelt’s keen
attention paid off near Yellow Bank, some 150 mile from the mouth of
the Ohio
River. He made a valuable discovery that would be extremely useful for
the progress of his future steamboat—coal. He immediately bought the
land where the coal was, as well as several other mines. Fueling his
future project was now nearly assured.
On hot summer nights the newlyweds bedded down on the deck, with the
crew working around them. The night sounds was their lullaby. Then
September came, and with it arrived shorter days and cooler nights. It
also
brought on one night, two Indians demanding whiskey. Lydia’s husband,
hoping they were not hostile, tried to convince them to leave. But
nothing would satisfy them except the white mans firewater. Having no
other
choice, Roosevelt managed to find a bottle of the brew and gave it to
them. To everyone’s relief, the two Indians left the flatboat and
disappeared back into the forest. But this incident was not the last
that
would interrupt their idyllic voyage.
A few weeks later a sick fever became an unwelcome passenger aboard
their boat. First one of the crewmembers fell ill, then the sickness
quickly spread to everyone onboard except Lydia. For the next three
weeks
this young woman, now reaching mid-term of her pregnancy, and who was
reared in luxury cooked, scrubbed and nursed the entire crew.
When, at
last, the crew had recovered sufficiently they once again took to the
river, heading for Natchez.
By the time they reached Natchez the crew was ready and willing for a
night on the town, leaving Lydia aboard with her still ill husband and
her maid. All would have been well except that soon after the crew left
the level of the river suddenly dropped. With the decrease in water
level the bottom of the flatboat hit the mast of a sunken vessel. The
impact was such that the flatboat sprang a leak. The flatboat would
have
gone to the bottom had it not been for seven-months-pregnant Lydia
bailing water constantly for the next four hours until the crew
returned.
Fortunately, they were only a week away from reaching New Orleans
because the remainder of the trip had to be made downriver in a large
rowboat. They hoped they would be able to find lodging each night
along the
river but this was not to be. Their days, and now their nights, were
spent aboard the rowboat. But, at least, their boredom was
nightly
broken by visitors. On the first night Lydia’s husband was waken by a
large
alligator that was attempting to climb into the rowboat with them.
Roosevelt greeted their visitor with a good whack on the side of the
boat
with the pilot’s cane. The gater left but each of the four following
nights the visitation was reenacted. The fifth night they found lodging
but their slumber was also disturbed by a far different source.
It was an elderly French couple that took them in on the fifth night,
allowing the travelers to bunk down on the floor in front of the
fireplace. Though they were now safe from intruding gaters, on several
occasions throughout the night the elderly couple, being devout
Catholics,
crept into the outer room to kneel and pray before a crucifix.
Moving on down the river the following day, night brought with it a
pouring rain. The crew rowed hard until they reached Baton Rouge,
reaching
the miserable little Louisiana town at nine o’clock. They found shelter
in the only public house the town possessed. The sleeping room where
the Roosevelts were to spend the night was not much more than a small
storeroom just off the barroom. Another nearly sleepless night was
spent
atop a dirty bed, dozing to the sounds of fighting and other
objectionable noises coming from the bar. The next three nights were
spent, filled
with apprehension, on the sandy beaches.
On December 1, they reached New Orleans. The trip had proven many
things, most of all that a better means of transportation up and down
the
Mississippi River was greatly needed. It had been a voyage that Lydia
Roosevelt would never forget but they gladly booked passage on the next
boat that would take them home to New York.
© Mary Trotter Kion, 2005
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Mary Trotter Kion....
Mary Trotter Kion is the published author of Kennewick, Washington, a history of that town, and Stones of Love, a romantic mystery. On the Internet, she is a Contributing Editor for Suite 101 with historical articles of the Great American Plains. She also produces two web sites: Women of the West with articles concerning histories of the varied women who helped settle the west, and Welcome to Fibromyalgia Vill, a humorous and uplifting view of fibromyalgia
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