I never know what in a column may touch a chord that generates a lot of unexpected interest. A few weeks ago I wrote about oyster dressing as a Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition in Columbus. I mentioned that much of the timing on oyster dressing had to do with late November generally being when cool weather arrived and the waters of the Tombigbee rose high enough for steamboat traffic. Those changes in weather and the river allowed steamboats to bring fresh oysters from Mobile.
That tidbit of local history prompted a number of people to ask just what was normally brought up river by steamer in the 1800s. It seems that while the shipment of cotton from Columbus, Aberdeen and the other river landings of the Upper Tombigbee to Mobile was common knowledge, people had not thought about what might be brought back up river on a steamer’s return trip from Mobile.
The major seaport at Mobile provided a gateway to the world for communities along the Tombigbee. This international commerce is exemplified by Port of Mobile records for the first week of April, 1846. The Mobile Register reported that during the week three ships from Liverpool, England, two from Glasgow, Scotland, and one from Havre, France, arrived in Mobile, along with three ships from New York. The products brought by these ships were then carried up river by steamboats. Thus new fashions and merchandise from France and England were usually available in Mobile as quickly as they were in New York or Boston.
The goods that flowed up river from Mobile included not just hardware and farm or plantation supplies, but also French champagne, the latest Paris fashions, cigars from Cuba, salt from Liverpool, English Staffordshire dinnerware, French porcelain, fresh fruit from the tropics and assorted dry goods.
During the winter, ships from northern ports would use ice as ballast and sell it in Mobile. Steamboats would then carry the ice to landings and ports up river. At the Columbus Landing, in the 1850s, James Blair built an ice house with thick brick walls in which to store ice brought up from Mobile by Steamboat.
James Blair also owned a drug store on Main Street in Columbus.
Dr. James Hopkins a physician (who later lived in my house) attended to the prescription department. Blair advertised in the Feb. 22, 1851, Columbus Democrat that he had received a new shipment of goods. The merchandise included drugs, chemicals, garden seed, paints, window glass, dye, glass ware, perfume, sperm whale oil, Black and green tea, Irish linen and Havana cigars. Blair advertised that “for medical purposes” he had received a shipment of brandy, Holland gin, Jamaica rum and pure Scotch whiskey.
Other records showed that Blair purchased goods in New York from where ships would carry them to Mobile. From Mobile steamboats carried the goods up river to Columbus. In 1855 he sued the owners of the Eliza Battle for damage to paint and dyes being carried to Columbus on board the steamer. A “N Jones” had a drug store next to Blair’s and also relied on steamboats to bring his merchandise from Mobile. Jones’ son died on the Eliza Battle when it burned in 1858.
Through the international gateway of the Port of Mobile, Columbus was provided with an assortment of goods one would not have imagined being available in the mid-1800s.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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